Online Students Lack Professional Networks Despite High Motivation, WGU Report Finds

Adult online learners are motivated and goal-oriented, but they are graduating without the professional relationships and peer connections needed to translate their degrees into career advancement, according to a news report from WGU Labs released this month.

The report, “Degrees Without Doors: Why Peer and Professional Networks Still Elude Online Learners,” is based on a September 2025 survey of 545 students at Western Governors University, the nation’s largest nonprofit online university. Researchers found that while students overwhelmingly know what they want professionally, they lack the human connections to get there, a gap that falls hardest on students from low-income, first-generation, and racially minoritized backgrounds.

Ninety-five percent of students surveyed said they had clear academic goals, and 87 percent reported knowing what career they wanted to pursue after graduation. Yet nearly one in five — 18.9 percent — said they knew zero people working in their desired field. More than half reported knowing three or fewer people in that field.

The problem deepens when it comes to influential contacts. Nearly a third of students — 31 percent — reported knowing no one in a senior or influential role in their chosen field, and 72 percent knew three or fewer such people. Meanwhile, 47 percent said they had not spoken with anyone in their field about advancing their career in the past month.

“Students may leave WGU with the credential they came for and the clarity about what they want to do next, but without the professional relationships that help them actually get there,” the report states.

The networking deficit is significantly worse for students from underserved backgrounds. Among students with annual household incomes below $45,000, nearly a quarter — 24.5 percent — knew no one working in their desired field, compared to 15.3 percent of higher-income peers. The disparity was even sharper regarding access to influential contacts: while 24.8 percent of higher-income students reported knowing no one in senior roles, over 40 percent of lower-income students reported the same.

First-generation students followed a similar pattern. Nearly 24 percent reported knowing no one in their field of interest, compared to 14 percent of students whose parents had completed college degrees.

Students identifying as Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, or two or more races — a group the report categorizes as BHI2+ — reported that 23 percent knew no one in their desired field, compared to 16.3 percent of non-BHI2+ students. They were also less likely to know people they could trust to help them pursue their goals, with 69 percent reporting such connections versus 75 percent of their peers.

The report frames this disparity as a civil rights and equity issue, not merely a career services gap. “In an economy where most jobs are filled through connections,” the authors write, the absence of professional networks “represents a serious threat to equity and upward mobility.”