A recent study finds that 93% of college undergraduates feel confident their classes are preparing them for jobs after graduation, but only about half of employers are so upbeat.
According to the State of Higher Education 2026 study from Gallup and the nonprofit Lumina Foundation, just 54% of employers responding to a questionnaire last fall believed colleges “are producing graduates with the competencies their businesses need.”
“That gap between perception and preparedness has real consequences for learners, institutions and the economy,” Gallup said in an email.
Among the surveyed employers, 70% insisted that recent college grads needed “moderate or significant” additional training to succeed at their companies. By contrast, 88% of students said they believed their degrees would be enough to walk right into a job.
This year’s annual study included a survey of employers for the first time. It polled 2,000 employers, 2,368 bachelor’s degree students, 1,433 associate’s degree students, 1,369 certificate students and 840 certification students from Oct. 2-31.
Education and workforce insiders reached for comment said the findings confirm that academic achievements have increasingly become disconnected from labor market needs.
“That gap is widening, not shrinking,” said Amanda Main, chief innovation officer and business lecturer at the University of Central Florida. “Employers reward judgment, adaptability, communication and the ability to function when nobody hands you a rubric.”
“The college-to-career bridge is cracking, and the typical on-ramps and off-ramps for careers have closed,” added Sam Caucci, CEO of the employee development company 1Huddle and a former workforce policy adviser to the Biden-Harris campaign.
Several experts urged students to learn new technologies and called on schools to collaborate more closely with industries to teach emerging job skills.
“The quality of the education students receive from most institutions is significantly behind the current state of industry,” said Hank Kohl, CEO of MPE Inc., a Milwaukee medical equipment manufacturer. “Technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate, creating an environment where there is a misalignment of skills.”
Political scientist Thomas Lindsay, a policy director at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, advised students to “seek real skills through internships, apprenticeships, certifications or targeted training rather than assuming the credential alone suffices.”
Mr. Lindsay, a former chief operating officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities, estimated that A’s now comprise 50% of all grades nationwide. He said that bolsters a growing perception that colleges have become overpriced examples of “preprofessional training mixed with ideological activism.”
Dick Startz, an educational economist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, countered that “colleges largely teach general skills” by design.
“Employers, naturally, want skills to be all about their specific needs,” Mr. Startz said. “So, it’s not surprising that graduates and employers disagree.”
A 2024 Intelligent.com survey of nearly 1,000 hiring managers found that 50% cited lack of motivation as a reason for firing recent college graduates, making it their most frequent complaint. An additional 46% cited lack of professionalism, and 39% flagged poor communication skills.
“What colleges are not designed to do is teach someone how to function in the specific operational culture of each unique employer and role,” said Ellen Raim, an employment attorney and former chief human resources officer based in Portland, Oregon.
Andy Williamson, CEO of ONLC Training, which teaches computer skills, said it’s become essential for graduates to gain artificial intelligence credentials as the job market evolves.
“Colleges cannot update their curriculum fast enough, especially when it comes to AI topics,” Mr. Williamson said. “The degree is not the finish line anymore. It is the starting credential.”
Learning work
Some higher education advocates said the study illustrates how college students have always needed to “learn how work works” after graduation.
They nevertheless conceded that some universities make this task easier by teaching students to meet deadlines, work in teams and gain real workplace experience through internships.
“In many schools, coursework takes precedence over acquiring any practical skills,” said Raymond Tarpley Jr., growth initiatives manager at the University of Maryland Global Campus.
Some campus insiders pointed to soaring enrollment in trade programs as a sign that colleges must do a better job of reaching out to potential employers for help in redesigning programs.
“Programs cannot be designed in isolation and then presented to industry after the fact,” said John Loyack, vice president of economic development for the North Carolina Community College System. “Employers need to help identify the skills, tools, technologies and workplace expectations that should be reflected in training.”
’Career payoff’
The recent Gallup/Lumina study also surveyed 5,052 college dropouts, 5,933 college graduates and 3,000 adults who never enrolled in higher education.
It found that the “career payoff” of expected future job opportunities was their strongest reason for enrolling, dropping out or never enrolling at all.
Overall, the study found that public confidence in the value of a college degree dropped from 57% in 2015 to 42% last year, reflecting growing financial concerns.
“The next step is not to move away from degrees,” said Doug Hughes, CEO of Codio, an education technology company that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other top colleges use to teach AI skills. “It is to strengthen them by making applied learning a bigger part of the college experience.”
Some bright spots remain.
Roughly half of employers surveyed by Gallup/Lumina said most jobs at their organization still require a college degree.
And three-quarters expected degrees to be “as or more important” in five years.
“Higher education has to start documenting and measuring the competencies it claims to produce, in a form an employer can actually read,” said Martin Mehl, a communications researcher at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. “A transcript is not that form.”
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