Less DEI and more AI could be in store this year for institutions of higher education.
That’s according to Missouri State University President Emeritus Michael Nietzel, who suggests in a recent piece with Forbes that those issues and four others could alter the 2026 higher education landscape:
1. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion reductions
More than 24 states have enacted bills to uproot DEI departments and policies in higher education, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s tracker. Nietzel cited Missouri and South Carolina as two states with anti-DEI bills before the legislatures. The changes follow President Donald Trump’s executive order, signed early in his second term, to abolish government-funded DEI programs that encourage “immense public waste and shameful discrimination.”
2. Community Colleges expand degrees
Currently two dozen states permit community colleges to grant four-year degrees in “high-demand areas” such as health care, education and manufacturing, Nietzel writes. The Iowa Legislature is considering a bill that would do something similar.
