Executive Summary
Rethinking Access Pathways to Higher Education
Across U.S. higher education, admissions has long served as the “front door” to opportunity. It is the moment when institutions decide who gains access to a four-year degree. Yet for too many learners, that door remains too narrow. Shifting demographics, economic pressures, and a growing commitment to equity are prompting colleges and universities to reconsider how they define “college readiness” and whom their systems are designed to serve.
The question of how to expand access through alternative pathways to admission sits at the center of a co-design initiative led by Arizona State University’s Learning Enterprise (LE) and the University Design Institute (UDI). The Expanding Universal On-Ramps Initiative examines how four-year institutions are experimenting with, adapting to, or planning for nontraditional routes into degree programs and identifies a set of archetypes for alternative admissions pathways that can guide colleges and universities seeking to develop more inclusive models.
The report synthesizes insights from qualitative interviews and surveys with enrollment and admissions leaders at 13 U.S. universities and the results from a series of design workshops with nine Co-Design Partners to identify alternative admissions archetypes with the potential to expand access pathways. Together, these activities provide a snapshot of a sector in transition. Institutions are aware of the challenges, but aligned around a shared goal to make admissions not a gatekeeping function, but a system of multiple entry points designed to meet learners where they are.