Colleges and universities are building more microcredentials with employment in mind, but the share of institutions that have committed to them across the board has barely moved in four years. That is the central finding of the 2026 Institutional Perspectives on Microcredentials report, released February 3, 2026, by UPCEA (the association for professional, continuing and online education) and The EvoLLLution, a publication of the higher education software company Modern Campus, which co-produced the study. For deans and program chairs deciding where microcredentials and badges belong in an academic portfolio, the report offers a measure of how peer institutions use them and where the effort is stalling.

Who was surveyed

Modern Campus says responses came from nearly 300 qualified higher education professionals at colleges and universities, collected in late 2025. Several results are compared with an earlier edition of the same research from 2021. The public summaries do not list a response rate or exact fielding dates, and UPCEA hosts the full report in its online library.

Adoption has flattened while individual involvement grew

Asked whether their institution had embraced credential innovation, 53 percent of 2025 respondents said it had, compared with 54 percent in 2021. Over the same span, the share of respondents who described themselves as extremely or very involved in developing new credential initiatives rose from 50 percent to 60 percent. UPCEA characterizes this as rising engagement among faculty and administrators that has not yet turned into commitment at the institutional level.

The gap shows up in planning documents. At institutions that have embraced credential innovation, 79 percent of respondents said their microcredential work was totally or very aligned with the strategic plan. At institutions that have not, 32 percent said so. Modern Campus reports that respondents in the first group were nearly twice as likely to say their microcredentials compete effectively with newer, nontraditional providers.

Workforce goals now drive design

The largest change since 2021 is in why institutions build these programs. According to Modern Campus's summaries of the data:

  • 85 percent design microcredentials for workforce development, up from 55 percent in 2021.
  • 84 percent design them for professional advancement, up from 66 percent.
  • 66 percent cite helping learners gain experience or prepare for employment, up from 19 percent in 2021.

The public summaries do not break results out by discipline, so they do not show whether engineering, computing or health units answer differently from the rest of the institution.

Confidence in the financial return has slipped

Fewer respondents now see microcredentials as a dependable source of revenue. In 2025, 58 percent agreed that microcredentials are essential to revenue and enrollment goals, down from 71 percent in 2021. The share saying microcredentials had greatly benefited their institution financially fell from 42 percent to 32 percent. Modern Campus notes that the decline appears even at institutions that have embraced credential innovation, and that short credentials seldom deliver fast financial returns.

Modern Campus also lists three priorities among the institutions it describes as making the most progress: relevance to the workforce, stackability, and clarity about the value a credential offers learners.

What stands in the way

The barriers respondents cite most often, according to UPCEA, are limited resources, traditional mindsets and legacy systems. UPCEA's research blog adds questions of ownership, governance, faculty engagement, quality assurance and coordination among academic units. Modern Campus frames the obstacle as structural: resourcing models, governance and older technology that keep offerings in separate silos instead of connected to a wider credential strategy.

The report sets out two paths. Institutions can keep microcredentials as projects inside individual units, or coordinate them as part of an institution-wide strategy backed by leadership and aligned with employer demand. Respondents at institutions on the second path report stronger mission alignment and more confidence competing with outside providers. Those are perceptions reported by survey respondents, not measured outcomes such as completion rates, learner earnings or employer uptake, which the public summaries do not include.

Reading the report

Modern Campus sells software to colleges and co-produced the study through The EvoLLLution, a sponsorship that readers comparing these figures with other research on microcredentials and badges can weigh for themselves. The sample of nearly 300 professionals reflects people engaged enough in continuing and professional education to answer the survey, not a random draw of all institutions. Program leaders planning their own review can request the full report through UPCEA's library.

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