Education

Is the UNC System producing the kind of workers the state needs?

By Jane Winik Sartwell

April 14, 2026 5:00 AM

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.

The UNC System report finds an annual statewide gap of 5,000 to 10,000 degrees annually.
Education degrees show a gap of about 1,800 completions and are declining 5% per year.
Electrical and mechanical engineering each show shortfalls of over 600 degrees annually.

Hello readers, it’s Jane Winik Sartwell, back in your inbox with another edition of Higher Stakes. This week, the UNC System’s Board of Governors will meet in a barn. Not just any barn, though: an event and educational space in a historic, renovated cattle barn in Morganton at the North Carolina School of Science and Math.

The board will be looking at issues like whether chancellors should be required to live in official residences provided by the university; how much debt the system can handle; and the system’s new workforce alignment report. Read about that and more in this week’s higher education newsletter.

Is the UNC System producing the kind of workers the state needs?

For the first time, the UNC System has published a report about how well UNC System degree programs align with North Carolina’s workforce needs. The report tries to answer the question: Does the supply of types of degrees match the demand for types of skilled workers in North Carolina?

The report found a gap of 5,000 to 10,000 degrees annually, with engineering, teaching, and nursing as the most severely undersupplied fields. Only one field is oversupplied: physical fitness, parks, recreation, and leisure.

The education degree shortage is particularly stark. The system reports a gap of around 1,800 degrees annually. Education degree completions are declining at 5% per year, even as rapid population growth and a wave of retiring teachers push demand for new teachers higher.

Electrical and mechanical engineering each show shortfalls of over 600 degrees per year at the bachelor’s level. Those gaps remain despite $125 million in state funding to bolster enrollment and talent generation in engineering.

In the report, the system says it is working to “ensure that all boats rise amidst this rising (economic) tide.” The Board of Governors will discuss the report and its implications this week.

UNC-Chapel Hill reacts to a student group’s comedy sketch, to the dismay of a free speech organization

By now, you may have seen the Hill After Hours sketch in question. UNC-Chapel Hill’s late-night-style campus sketch comedy group posted a sketch featuring a white student travelling from her dorm to South Campus, a voyage that, in the sketch, required the protection of bodyguards. Many on campus called it out for what they saw as insensitively amplifying harmful stereotypes about students of color on campus, since South Campus is historically home to a greater percentage of students of color.

The outrage reached such a fever pitch that the school announced it was investigating Hill After Hours “to determine more information about how and by whom the video was authorized and produced as well as next steps needed to address concerns.” However, after the Foundation for Individual Rights and Free Expression called on UNC to halt that investigation, the school said that no such investigation was underway.

The student who starred in the video is also the opinion editor at the Daily Tar Heel, which published the April Fools’ edition that led to widespread outrage on campus.

“Students and student organizations are expected to conduct themselves in ways that respect the rights, dignity, worth, and freedom of others,” wrote James Orr, senior vice provost for student success, referring to the controversies over the Daily Tar Heel and Hill After Hours video. “Along with other members of our community, I am deeply saddened by the actions that have transpired.”

FIRE said the statement violated the state law requiring public universities not to take a position “on the political controversies of the day.”

In other free speech news, Chapel Hill’s Alumni Free Speech Alliance is urging the adoption of a mandatory “free speech and expression statement in all UNC course syllabi” at UNC-Chapel Hill to combat student self-censorship.

A major esports investment at NC State

Lenovo has made a “historic” investment into esports at NC State, the university said. As a result of the gift, an esports arena currently under construction at the school — to which the state has already committed $12 million — will now be known as the Lenovo Esports Arena.

The area, once completed, will be an “immersive 5,000-square-foot arena [and] one of the nation’s largest collegiate esports facilities,” that “will support research and education as well as competition.” Lenovo agreed to build a custom large-scale server and donate key hardware for the arena, in addition to major funding for the project.

“The Lenovo Esports Arena is the next step in the evolution and growing footprint of NC State Esports, which is already among higher-education’s largest such programs,” the university said in a statement. “Esports is defined as competitive multiplayer video gaming. Players face off online in organized competitions, which can be streamed live to millions of viewers through platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Increasingly, top-level esports enjoy professional play-by-play commentary, substantial prize money and sponsorships, live audiences and other elements common in athletics.”

The arena is set to be completed in 2027.