In 2008, the Prison Studies Project at Harvard University began compiling a list of higher education in prison programs throughout the United States. For the next 10 years, the National Directory of Higher Education Programs in Prison remained a central focus of the Prison Studies Project and an important resource for the higher education in prison community. In 2019, the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison partnered with the University of Utah research team and the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, to continue this work through the distribution of the Annual Survey of Higher Education in Prison Programs and the creation of the National Directory of Higher Education in Prison Programs (2020), which serves as a comprehensive resource for people seeking information about college in prison programs in the United States. In 2025, researchers with the Prison Education Action Research Lab (PEARL) at the University of Utah distributed a census questionnaire to all known programs, inviting them to update their previous directory information. Additionally, anonymous links were sent through a mailing list maintained by the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison and through social media and other communication outlets.

Data for the 2025 National Directory update are drawn from responses to the 2025 Higher Education in Prison Programs Update (n = 172), which were compiled with known program information already existing in the National Directory of Higher Education in Prison Programs (n = 406).

The 2025 census update was designed to encourage greater responses than in previous years as well as capture more specific information about re-entry efforts on campus. This meant that the instrument was shorter (at most, 42 questions) and pre-populated with historical data drawn from existing programs in the National Directory. The 2025 questionnaire attempted to clarify questions including where programming was offered and to whom, what credential pathways were offered and how, and what additional programming existed for incarcerated and directly impacted students.

Once the questionnaire was completed, additional data were retrieved for programs included in the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison’s National Directory that did not respond to the 2025 Update. These data were used to update the National Directory with the most recent information for all known prison education programs.