Dear Center for Academic Innovation Community,
This spring, the University of Michigan reached a remarkable milestone: conferring its one millionth degree.
It is an extraordinary achievement for an extraordinary institution, and a moment that invites reflection. Who earned that one millionth degree? How different was their experience from those first Michigan graduates? And what will learning at Michigan look like for the next million degree recipients?
While we don’t know the specific story of the ‘millionth’ graduate, one thing is clear: the world surrounding higher education has transformed dramatically across generations of Michigan learners. The educational experiences that define the next era of learning at Michigan will differ profoundly from those of the past.
Today’s learners are navigating rapid technological change, evolving workforce expectations, and increasing pressure to continuously develop new skills throughout their lives and careers. A University of Michigan education remains as valuable and transformative as ever — but the ways learners discover, access, and return to that education are expanding in important ways.
Higher education is no longer simply a “degree and done” proposition. Learning has become lifelong.
Learners increasingly expect education to meet them where they are — across different stages of life, career transitions, and changing personal goals. They are seeking learning experiences that are flexible, connected to opportunity, and able to evolve alongside rapidly changing technologies and industries. These shifts are reshaping not only how learners engage with higher education, but also how universities think about access, relevance, and long-term relationships with the communities they serve.
At the Center for Academic Innovation, we are partnering with colleagues across the university to help Michigan meet that moment by building more flexible, connected, and lifelong pathways into and through a Michigan education.
Increasingly, that work spans the full learner journey — from exploration and skill development to certificates, graduate education, and continued engagement long after graduation. Through Michigan Online and our broader portfolio of online and hybrid learning initiatives, we are helping learners connect with Michigan in new ways and return to the university throughout their lives and careers.
To date, more than 12.5 million unique learners have engaged with Michigan’s open online learning opportunities. We are also seeing continued growth in the number of learners who begin with an open course and ultimately pursue additional educational opportunities at Michigan, whether residential or fully online.
Schools and colleges across the university continue to expand high-quality online graduate education through programs such as the Online MBA, the Online Master of Social Work, and emerging offerings from the Ford School of Public Policy and the Marsal Family School of Education.
For many learners, open online courses represent their first experience with the University of Michigan. Their journey may begin with curiosity about a new field, a desire for professional advancement, or a search for new opportunities during moments of transition. Increasingly, these experiences are becoming part of a broader continuum of lifelong learning. Stories like Dhruvi’s, Alaa’s, and Aliya’s remind us that online education can expand access to a Michigan education in powerful and deeply personal ways.
Residential education remains a foundational part of the Michigan experience. In a world where learning must continue long after graduation, we also have a responsibility to support learners as their goals, careers, and lives evolve over time.
Michigan has always thought ambitiously about who can benefit from a university education and how we can extend that opportunity more broadly. The next era of higher education will require us to continue that tradition of innovation while remaining grounded in the academic excellence and public mission that define this institution.
The one millionth degree is an important milestone and a reminder that the future of learning at Michigan will be defined not only by the degrees we confer, but by the lifelong relationships we build with learners around the world.
There is much more ahead, and I look forward to what we will build together.
Go Blue!
James DeVaney
Associate Vice Provost for Academic Innovation
Founding Executive Director of the Center for Academic Innovation