Innovation, Outcomes and Impact at WGU in FY26
At WGU, we believe education is most powerful when it evolves alongside the needs of the individuals it serves. As technological advances reshape the future of work, we believe education must move beyond an episodic, one-size-fits-all model toward one that is continuous, adaptive and responsive throughout an individual’s lifetime. Innovation is central to this work.
But our bias for innovation also requires accountability. We must be transparent about what we are doing, why we are doing it, and whether it is delivering meaningful outcomes for the individuals we serve. This is particularly important at a time when the skills employers need are rapidly changing, creating new possibilities for how individuals learn throughout their careers. Our student-centered, workforce-aligned model is built to respond, helping learners at different points in their lives and careers build the relevant knowledge and skills they need to navigate an evolving economy. And our FY26 Annual Report is an opportunity to examine that progress openly, holding ourselves accountable for the impact we seek to create.
In FY26, WGU continued to broaden the ways individuals can access learning throughout their lives. We expanded our academic pathways, including 12 new and five redeveloped degree programs, like our Bachelor of Science in AI Engineering. While workforce-aligned degree programs remain at the heart of our mission, we also expanded complementary pathways, including onramps, certificates, apprenticeships, and other innovations that help students build relevant knowledge and skills as their goals and careers evolve.
Students remain our primary beneficiary, but the value we deliver to them is only realized to the extent we provide value to employers. In that spirit, WGU expanded its workforce pathways, delivering readied talent to the industries where talent is most in demand. More than 650 employers leveraged our apprenticeship platform to connect structured learning with paid work, while nearly 2,000 employer partnerships helped to close skill gaps and connect working learners with opportunity.
Everything we do ultimately comes down to outcomes. How are we increasing the probability that every student, no matter their background or the challenges they face, is supported throughout their learning journey and able to complete their credential? How do we ensure credentials actually translate to opportunity, and how can we extend that promise to as many learners as possible, recognizing that there are far more individuals needing to be served than there is currently capacity to serve them?
This past fiscal year, WGU employed a pro-human, AI-enabled approach to provide timely, relevant interventions when our students needed extra support—leveraging AI to identify moments of struggle, and to increase the timely, relevant interactions with mentors, instructors, and evaluators to help students progress and persist towards their goals. Through this high-touch approach, WGU students were able to complete 3.5 million course tasks and pass 2.9 million assessments, with more than 67,000 graduates earning degrees, and more than 1,440 students completing their certificates. Particularly when you consider that more than 85% of our students work while enrolled, it’s truly a remarkable feat—and a testament to the dedication of our incredible students and remarkable faculty.
But just as access without attainment is an empty promise, completion that doesn’t result in opportunity and economic mobility fails to deliver value for students. Thanks to WGU’s affordable pricing, tuition assistance, and Responsible Borrowing Initiative, graduates were able to advance in their careers without taking on significant debt, holding a median student loan balance of just $11,900 at graduation. Combined with relevant, in-demand skills, a WGU degree was shown to deliver substantial economic value. For our FY23 cohort, graduates saw a median income increase of nearly $15,000 just two years post-graduation. That annual increase over a lifetime translates into lifetime earnings premium of 29 times the cost to complete. Perhaps the best signal of all, 94% of graduates said they would choose WGU again, and 87% of employers said they would hire another WGU graduate.
Today, roughly half of U.S. adults do not hold a postsecondary credential that could enhance their careers, change their lives, and transform their families. Among these individuals are more than 43 million Americans who previously enrolled but stopped out, due, in large part, to institutional failures to meet them where they are; and, millions more who never enrolled, having reached the quiet but pervasive conclusion that “college is not for me.” WGU was originally conceived to reach individuals such as these, anchored around the belief that that talent is universal, and that the responsibility for delivering on education’s promise was ours. In FY26, WGU continued to scale our impact, with concurrent enrollment more than 195,000 full-time students across the country, and awarding our 500,000th degree. Yet while these milestones speak to the quality and relevance of our model, they represent something far greater: a new standard of impact, and an enduring commitment to expand access and create lasting value for generations to come.
Our FY26 Annual Report reflects that commitment—and our belief that education's greatest impact is measured not by the credentials it awards, but by the lives it transforms. I invite you to explore the report, learn more about our progress, and join us in building a stronger talent economy.
