The featured take
Key takeaway
Tyton Partners just published its 2026 Listening to Learners study, surveying more than 1,800 undergraduates across nearly 1,100 institutions, and it puts a number on something career services teams have suspected for years. At best, a quarter of students actually use the support services their school offers. Institutions have been treating that as an awareness problem. The data says they are wrong.
When Tyton asked students who skip these services why, only 9% said they did not know the services existed. The real answer, from 51% of students, is that they were not convinced the service was relevant to them. Another 26% pointed to hours or access. Meanwhile 45% of institutional leaders still believe awareness is the main barrier, a gap that explains why utilization stays flat even after outreach campaigns.
The same survey found only 31% of students feel they can connect their major to a career path, and just one in four are currently in an internship, even though clear career direction and hands-on experience are the two things students said they want most. Faculty report building real-world projects into coursework at roughly twice the rate students say they actually experience it.
There is a second finding worth sitting with. Sixty-one percent of students now use AI weekly, up from 42% a year ago, and AI users report lower stress and higher academic confidence. But 56% still want human support alongside it, not instead of it. Students are not choosing between AI and people. They are asking institutions to combine the two well enough that support finally feels relevant to them specifically.
Also in this issue
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Inside Higher Ed: Survey Finds Americans Concerned About AI's Effect on Human Connection and Thinking
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DHS Proposes End to 60-Day H-1B Grace Period
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Federal Judge Halts DHS's 4-Year Visa Cap for International Students
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NM Higher Education Department Launches Workforce Pell Application for Colleges
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For-Profit Perdoceo Education to Acquire South University for 140 Million Dollars
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ED Approves Workforce Pell Grant Programs in Nebraska
Nebraska just became the third state with approved Workforce Pell programs, proof the 70 percent completion-and-placement accountability bar is now live and being enforced.
The Nonexistent Research on AI Benefits for Education
A new Inside Higher Ed investigation finds little independent research backing AI-in-education vendor claims, raising the bar for any AI tool to show verified outcomes data instead of promises.
Workforce Pell Implementation Creates New Opportunities and Risks for Career Schools
Career schools now face a two-layer state-and-federal approval gauntlet before Workforce Pell dollars can flow, raising the bar on having outcomes data ready ahead of approval.
Rolling Out Workforce Pell: Early Adopter Colleges Share Lessons
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The Enrollment Wins of 2026
Six colleges posted record or turnaround enrollment this fall, and the common threads were K-12 partnerships and dedicated data analysis, not luck.
Pipeline Needed: Every Metro Area Now Faces a Workforce Shortage
New Georgetown research: every U.S. metro area will face a qualified-worker shortage through 2034, and only 15% of workers without a bachelor's degree are in a career-track premium-wage job today.
Sent September 20, 2026 with the subject line “Only 1 in 4 Students Use Campus Support Services. New Data Shows Why.”. Links point to the original sources.