What Gen Z Wants From Education Today

Top Three Takeaways:

1. Gen Z is no longer treating higher education as the default next step. Colleges must first prove why a degree belongs in a student’s future before competing on campus, academics or amenities.

2. Value has to be visible early. Career outcomes, skill-building, affordability, financial aid and ROI need to move from supporting details to core brand proof points.

3. Flexibility is becoming a trust signal. Programs that adapt to students’ realities—through pacing, hybrid options, hands-on experiences and multiple viable pathways—will be better positioned to earn consideration.

For decades, higher education enjoyed something few industries ever do: being the default. The expectation was clear: graduate high school, go to college, start your career. It was not just one path. It was the path.

Not anymore. Gen Z is challenging higher education as the assumed next step into adulthood.

Hiebing’s proprietary Gen Z research makes this shift hard to ignore. Only 17% of Gen Z respondents in our 2026 study are currently enrolled in a four-year college or university—down from the 25% of Elder Z respondents who were enrolled in 2021. While the Elder half and the younger Gen Z are not identical, the message higher education has received is consistent: Higher education is not competing for enrollment anymore. It is competing for relevance.

Why is college no longer the default path for Gen Z?

For years, enrollment marketing has been built around differentiation: better academics, campus life, rankings and amenities than the school down the road. Those differentiators still matter—but only after Gen Z has decided college belongs in their future.

Before Gen Z compares campuses, they compare pathways. College versus work. College versus certifications. College versus self-directed learning. College versus waiting. More than half of respondents identified real-world experience, personal motivation and on-the-job training as stronger contributors to building successful careers than a traditional four-year degree. Only 37% ranked a four-year education among the most important drivers of career success.

Higher education is competing against every pathway that promises skills, income and opportunity. The enrollment funnel does not start with awareness anymore. It starts with a harder question: Why go to college?

How can higher education marketing prove value to Gen Z?

When belief in the category weakens, reputation alone cannot carry the message. Gen Z approaches education with striking pragmatism, weighing career outcomes, earning potential, flexibility and financial security above prestige or tradition. Hiebing’s research found that 67% of respondents said they would feel more comfortable seeking higher education if there were more flexibility in pacing and program options—proof that the issue is not a disinterest in learning, but whether higher education feels adaptable enough to fit their lives.

Marketers can no longer assume prospective students see a degree as inherently valuable. Every unanswered question becomes another reason to opt out, which leaves opportunity for universities to provide proof like:

• What skills will they build?

• What jobs do graduates get?

• What internships, certifications and real-world experiences happen before graduation?

• How does coursework connect to employment?

The strongest higher education brands will make the path from enrollment to employment unmistakably clear. Awareness gets you on the list. Proof gets you applications.

How should colleges talk about affordability and ROI with Gen Z?

Our previous wave of research found that affordability was the single biggest driver of higher education decisions, with financial aid, scholarships and student loan debt shaping whether college felt attainable at all. That makes the latest enrollment data easier to understand: Gen Z is not questioning education because they stopped valuing learning. They are questioning whether the investment makes financial sense.

Too often, affordability lives on a financial aid webpage or waits until admitted-student conversations. By then, Gen Z may have already moved on. Cost needs to become part of the brand story—not because college is inexpensive, but because institutions can clearly explain the value behind the investment: the support available, what aid looks like, how quickly graduates find employment and what earning potential follows.

For this generation, “worth it” cannot be implied. It must be demonstrated.

Why does flexible learning matter to Gen Z students?

Gen Z doesn’t just want options. They want evidence that hands-on coursework and degree paths can adapt to real life. Our previous research found that 45% said flexibility, including online or hybrid options, would influence where they pursue higher education.

Our 2026 research reinforces why that matters. This is a generation making practical decisions under pressure, with pay, location, job availability and flexible schedules driving their career choices. That makes flexibility more than a feature for higher ed—it becomes proof that an institution understands the realities students face.

In a world with many routes to success, trust belongs to the institutions that embrace choice rather than prescribe a single path.

What should higher education marketers do next?

For marketers, the mandate is clear: make the value of higher education easier to see, easier to believe and easier to act on.

• Compete against alternatives, not just institutions. Position your programs against the real choices Gen Z is weighing: immediate income, certifications, self-directed learning and delayed enrollment.

• Lead with proof before prestige. Make career pathways, skill-building, internships, graduate outcomes and earning potential more visible than rankings or campus amenities.

• Turn affordability into a brand story. Bring cost, aid and ROI forward early, before prospective students quietly decide college is not financially realistic.

• Use flexibility as reassurance. Show multiple viable student journeys, including paths that can adapt when life, work or finances shift.

• Replace broad promises with visible evidence. Use transparent outcomes, real student stories, plain-language program maps and honest answers to the questions students are too often left to solve alone.

The next era belongs to institutions willing to earn authority the hard way—with transparency, evidence and outcomes students can actually see.

Searching for more Gen Z insights? Hiebing can help. Email Nate Tredinnick at ntredinnick@hiebing.com to set up a call.