Research Agenda 2026
July 2026 - June 2027
| Priority | Agency | Research Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | UDOC | Professional Licensing Fees and Pipeline: Understand the current population of license holders by industry. This includes describing the age distribution and how out-of-state license holders contribute to the current number of license holders. Understand which professions may face a shrinking pool of license holders in the coming years by forecasting the pipeline. Understand how these professions' license fees relate to expected wages and if those fees will pose a potential burden to future license applicants. |
| 2 | USHE | Working Students Revisted: Update the previous UDRC research focusing on working students. The update will include breaking out concurrent enrollment students. A comparison of differences across award levels and intended major. Test for post-graduation labor market differences between working and nonworking students. |
| 3 | USBE | Preschool Initiatives and Sustained Academic Success: Examine the long-term effects of participation in preschool initiatives and specialized intervention programs on academic achievement. Identify key factors from early childhood that influence sustained academic success through intermediate grades, high school, and postsecondary education. |
| 4 | UDRC | Effects of Scholarships: Examine the outcomes of students who receive scholarships based on HS coursework and GPA. Identify any gaps among those who qualified but did not receive a scholarship. Understand how the scholarship affected retention, momentum, completion, and labor market outcomes. |
| 5 | USHE / UDRC | Relationship Between CTE Provider, Proximity, and Offerings and Higher Education and Workforce Outcomes: Break down differences in CTE provision based on location, course offerings, and CTE provider. Test whether these differences in CTE provision lead to outcomes in postsecondary education and the labor market. |
| 6 | USHE/UDRC | Student Responses to Labor Market Signals: Understand how labor market conditions, such as employment and wages, for new graduates affect enrollment and completion for those majors. Understand how long changes take to move through higher education, and which majors are more or less responsive to labor market signals. |