State higher education leaders across the country are going into 2025 with several top policy priorities and concerns. The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) asked its members to identify their top policy issues for the new year in a survey distributed to chief executive officers after the November 2024 election. States face a multitude of higher education policy issues, with some topics consistently among the top priorities for policymakers, while others represent emerging public policy concerns driven by the current higher education landscape. SHEEO’s report details the top 11 state policy priorities for 2025 (due to a tie for 10th), with two additional emerging issues noted as honorary mentions.
State operating support for public colleges and universities rose to the top priority for higher education in 2025, emerging from number two last year, and number four in 2023. Historically, state operating support has been the primary source of revenue public colleges and universities have used to educate students. This has shifted over time, with more institutions now relying on tuition dollars. As states focus on college affordability, state operating support to institutions is critical to help avoid tuition increases and counterbalance inflationary pressures in operating costs. Although state support for operating budgets increased in most states since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, state budgets and spending are expected to shrink in fiscal year 2025. Budget shortfalls tend to result in cuts to state support for higher education and, in turn, increases in tuition and fees for students, which some states are already experiencing.
While just missing out as the top policy priority for the third year in a row, 94 percent of SHEEOs still indicated that economic and workforce development is an important or very important issue, making it the second top policy priority for SHEEOs. SHEEO agencies are implementing a wide range of initiatives to meet future labor market demands. Many of these efforts focus on identifying high-demand occupations and providing incentives for students and institutions.
Rounding out the top five priorities for higher education leaders are (3) state funding for financial aid programs, (4) higher education’s value proposition, and (5) college completion and student success. All top five issues ranked within the top 10 in 2024. Other issues in the top 10 include (6) college affordability, (7) enrollment declines, (8) public perception of higher education, (9) FAFSA completion, and with a tie (10) adult/non-traditional student success, and (10) student transfer pathways. Honorable mentions include K-12 teacher workforce, and the use of state data to inform decision-making.
“While this report isn’t an exhaustive list of issues our states are facing, it foreshadows policy priorities in the 2025 state legislative sessions,” said Tom Harnisch, SHEEO’s Vice President for Government Relations. “With some states already having to make tough budget decisions, I think we’ll continue to see headlines around operating support, state funding for financial aid programs, and the conversation around college affordability and the value proposition.”
This year, SHEEO added three policy issues—student transfer pathways, cost containment, and artificial intelligence—and dropped two issues—academic tenure and DEI curriculum and programming. The survey also combined student health, safety, and basic needs (food, housing, childcare, etc.) due to similar concepts that have ranked comparably in prior years. Student transfer pathways was the only new issue to poll in the top 10, while cost containment and artificial intelligence ranked 18th and 19th.
The full State Priorities for Higher Education in 2025 report can be found at https://bit.ly/state-priorities-2025.
