Under Pressure: What’s Keeping Presidents Up at Night in 2026

Presidents and their institutions are navigating immediate financial and political pressures while simultaneously pursuing innovation to ensure long-term relevance, according to the newly-released Inside Higher Ed/Hanover Research 2026 Survey of Colleges and University Presidents. The Alliance's Vice President of Strategy and Collective Impact Tia McNair joined Inside Higher Ed's webinar to discuss these findings alongside IHE's Colleen Flaherty; Amanda Fuchs Miller, president of Seventh Street Strategies and former deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs at the U.S. Department of Education; and Jack Corby, vice president of Stevens Strategy.

Materials from this webinar and a recording of the event are available here. Further discussion about this, as well as advice Alliance President Mike Gavin offered to presidents focused on rebuilding trust can be found in an episode of IHE's The Key podcast as well as in additional coverage of this survey.

McNair and her fellow panelists explored the below topics and provided guidance and insight about building trust and advancing equity in higher education.

• How presidents assess the second Trump administration’s impact on higher education

• Which emerging or evolving educational models they plan to add or expand in the coming years

• How effective they believe higher education has been in shaping national conversations about AI

• The issues presidents expect will have the greatest impact on higher education by 2030