Higher Ed 2025

Beyond the Noise: Navigating Chaotic Times in Higher Ed

Colleges are navigating a complex and rapidly changing landscape. From shifts in federal research funding to evolving policies on campus diversity, equity, and inclusion—and ongoing challenges, such as rising costs, financial pressures, and the push to align education with workforce needs—higher education institutions are being asked to adapt in real time.

How can journalists make sense of these changes and produce meaningful coverage that informs the public and holds institutions accountable?

The Education Writers Association invites you to deepen your reporting skills and expand your network at the 2025 Higher Education Seminar, taking place Sept. 9–11 in Detroit, Michigan. This year’s theme, “Beyond the Noise: Navigating Chaotic Times in Higher Ed,” will help participants cut through complexity and surface underreported, high-impact stories across the higher education landscape.

Special programming on Sept. 9 will focus on covering postsecondary education in rural communities. Sessions will explore the role of colleges as economic and cultural anchors, how institutions are recruiting and supporting rural students, and how to effectively cover tribal colleges. This portion of the seminar will be held at the Hotel Saint Regis Detroit.

The seminar continues Sept. 10–11 at Wayne State University, where journalists will explore timely topics, such as:

• The implications of changes in federal research funding
• The evolving student loan and Pell Grant landscape
• The rich histories and ongoing challenges of minority-serving institutions, including HBCUs
• How to thoughtfully and rigorously cover issues of discrimination on campus
  

Through journalist-led panels; in-depth conversations with students, faculty, administrators and subject-matter experts; and hands-on workshops, attendees will leave better equipped to report with context, clarity and confidence.

Photo credit: SeanPavonePhoto/Bigstock

EWA is grateful to Lumina Foundation for providing the major funding that made this seminar possible. EWA would also like to thank Ascendium Education Group for providing the funding for the special day of programming focused on covering postsecondary education in rural communities. We are also grateful to Wayne State University for their generosity in hosting the seminar.

EWA retains editorial control over all programming.