Practical Skills Earn High Student Marks

University of Phoenix course surveys and enrollment data show students are building practical skills such as decision-making, communication, problem-solving, information literacy and health literacy.

University of Phoenix students are giving online coursework high marks for practical value. From January 2025 through July 2026, the Student End-of-Course Survey item, "I earned skills I can put to work right away," received 259,969 responses, with a weighted average response of 9.274 out of 10. The finding offers a student-reported view into how learners experience the relevance of their courses and provides a large-scale indicator that students see immediate applicability in the skills they are developing.

The University also reviewed academic year 2025 enrollment in top-enrolled courses and the skills students can demonstrate in those courses. Across high-enrollment courses, students encountered skills including decision-making, communication, problem-solving, information literacy, health literacy, strategic thinking, data analysis, business communication, teamwork and strategic planning.

Key findings:

• The Student End-of-Course Survey item, "I earned skills I can put to work right away," received 259,969 responses from January 2025 through July 2026.

• The weighted average response for the item was 9.274 out of 10.

• Month-over-month averages remained consistently high during the period, ranging from 9.18 to 9.41 out of 10 among all respondents.

• Top-enrolled academic year 2025 courses reflected practical skills including decision-making, information literacy, problem-solving, health literacy, communication, data analysis, teamwork, financial analysis and strategic planning.

• The data reflects student-reported course experience and course skill information, not employment or career outcome data.

"For working adults, relevance matters," said John Woods, Ph.D., provost and chief academic officer at University of Phoenix. "A rating above 9 out of 10 across more than 250,000 student responses is a powerful signal that learners recognize the practical value of what they are studying. This validates our focus on designing courses around career-relevant skills students can understand, articulate and apply in real-time."

Why immediately applicable skills matter for working adults

For working adults, the value of higher education often becomes clear in the moments when coursework connects to real responsibilities, as students build confidence, strengthen capabilities, and connect learning to real situations.

University of Phoenix has focused on flexible, career-relevant education designed for busy adults balancing work, family and school. The University's skills-mapped curriculum for all degree programs open for enrollment is designed to help students identify and articulate skills as they progress through their courses, supporting a clearer connection between academic learning and practical application.

The Student End-of-Course Survey finding offers a large-scale view into that experience. Rather than relying only on institutional description, the data reflects how students themselves responded to a direct question about whether they earned skills they could put to work right away.

Career-relevant skills reflected in top-enrolled courses

The Phoenix Success Series is a set of six general education courses that all new undergraduate students at University of Phoenix must complete or waive with transfer credits before progressing to other courses. The Phoenix Success Series courses support and enhance the core curriculum experience across degree programs, focusing on skills such as critical thinking, time management, communication, problem solving, decision making, and information literacy.

Academic year 2025 enrollment data shows that many of the University's most highly enrolled courses include skills that are broadly relevant across workplaces and industries, especially in the Phoenix Success Series. Examples include:

• GEN/201, with 51,081 enrollments, included decision-making, information literacy and problem-solving.

• SCI/163T, with 34,169 enrollments, included health literacy, nutritional assessment and social determinants of health.

• PSY/110, with 24,525 enrollments, included innovation, problem-solving and strategic thinking.

• HUM/115, with 22,260 enrollments, included decision-making, effective reasoning and problem-solving.

• ENG/110, with 21,471 enrollments, included decision-making in communication, organizing ideas for clear communication and rhetorical awareness in real-world writing.

• ENG/210, with 18,210 enrollments, included audience-centered communication, career-focused writing and decision-making in communication.

Early courses like these provide opportunities to demonstrate highly sought-after, durable skills within different learning contexts. As they move deeper into the core courses of their programs, students develop more technical, discipline-specific skills. The result is a robust set of career-relevant skills a learner can put to work right away, and which they can build upon in the workplace and in higher level courses along their educational pathway.

Student-reported applicability remained consistently high

Across the January 2025 through July 2026 period, monthly averages for all Student End-of-Course Survey respondents on the skills item remained consistently high. The monthly average response ranged from 9.18 in March 2025 to 9.41 in July 2026.

For students in selected skills-focused courses reviewed by the University, like the Phoenix Success Series, monthly scores also reflect strong reported applicability. In July 2026, students' response to skills in Phoenix Success Series courses ranged from 9.27 to 9.62 (out of 10).

About the data

The Student End-of-Course Survey data reflects responses to the item, "I earned skills I can put to work right away," from January 2025 through July 2026. The item received 259,969 responses, with a weighted average response of 9.274 out of 10. The average statistic represents the mean response by respondents to a survey in which they're asked to rate their agreement with the above statement, using an 11-point, 0-to-10 scale. The SEOCs survey invitation was sent to over 1.3 million recipients, with a response rate of 20.5%.

Course enrollment and course skill examples reflect academic year 2025 top-enrolled courses reviewed by the University of Phoenix Assessment and Institutional Research Department.

About University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix is Built for Real Life. 50 Years Strong. The University innovates to help working adults enhance their careers and develop skills in a rapidly changing world through flexible online learning, relevant courses, academic AI pillars, and skills-mapped curriculum for associate, bachelor's and master's degree programs. Active students and alumni have access to Career Services for Life® resources including career guidance and tools. For more information, visit phoenix.edu.