Across the United States, millions of students are returning to colleges to begin the new academic year. However, the scenes on many campuses may not be what you imagine them to be. Nowadays, there are fewer traditional sophomores moving back to dormitories after the summer break, while there are far more adults returning to school after having been away for many years.

After decades of steady growth, the proportion of high school graduates directly entering college has declined: from nearly 70% ten years ago to about 60% today. My son is 20 years old this year and has decided to enroll in college, but I often hear him and his friends discussing whether the jobs for which they are training will still exist by the time they graduate. A recent Gallup survey found that nearly half of the students have considered changing their majors due to concerns about how artificial intelligence will affect their fields. Against this backdrop, it’s not hard to understand why an 18-year-old might ask: Is it still worth going to college?

But despite the increasingly complex nature of these questions, higher education remains one of the most reliable levers for promoting economic mobility. At a time when Generation Z’s confidence in degrees is beginning to waver, another group of Americans is betting on higher education on an unprecedented scale. In the United States, there are over 40 million people who hold college credits but have not obtained a degree, and an increasing number of them wish to complete their studies. For the 2023-2024 academic year, more than 1 million students re-enrolled, marking the highest level since the National Student Information Exchange Center began keeping records, and a 7% increase from the previous year.

There is every reason for them to return to campus. In North Carolina, a state-level program called “NC Reconnect” helps community colleges reach out to adults who left school without obtaining a certificate and provides support from re-enrollment all the way to graduation. The program has found that those who complete a certificate or degree experience an increase in median annual income of about $20,000. For a family, this is an amount of income that can be life-changing. This is also a powerful lesson for other states that are seeing a narrowing of labor supply channels.

Of course, academic certificates only bring benefits when students have truly completed their studies, yet the higher education system is rarely designed around the lives of those who return to school to continue their education. Today, nearly 20% of undergraduate students are raising children, and about half work while they are in school. The responsibilities these students have to juggle are ones that traditional undergraduates rarely face. Among those students who fail to obtain their certificates or degrees in their first year back at school, less than 60% will continue their studies in the second year.

I know what it's like when a rigid course schedule coincides with working hours or when a child falls ill. My own path through higher education was not a straight line either. As the first member of my family to attend college, by the time I enrolled at the University of Oregon, I had already earned some credits from Portland State University and Clarkamas Community College. During my studies, I took on part-time jobs, including work-study programs, to help cover the tuition fees. After working for a few years, I returned to school to pursue a certificate in legal assistantship at Portland Community College. Later on, I continued my education to earn a Master of Business Administration degree, attending night classes while working full-time and raising a child. At that time, I thought my experience was an exception. Today, however, such experiences are gradually becoming the norm.

In recent years, adult learners and those returning to school have gradually moved from being a marginalized group in higher education to a more central position. A few states have established infrastructure that reflects this change, combining enrollment efforts with academic and financial support, and tailoring programs for those who need to balance work and family responsibilities. Programs like “NC Reconnect” in North Carolina are not just marketing initiatives to encourage learners to return to school; they are becoming models for other states to study and emulate.

However, the narrative in our popular culture about "who goes to college" has not kept up with the changes in the actual population of college applicants. Movies, television, and college brochures still depict the classic image of carefree freshmen moving into dormitories. More and more often, this image no longer represents young learners at all. Whether Generation Z will continue to stay away from higher education remains to be seen, but the fact is that even those students who enroll at the traditional age are coming to campus with a wider range of needs than before. The changes that colleges and universities are making to accommodate returning students will also benefit Generation Z and Alpha Generation students.

It is time for universities, policymakers, and our cultural narratives to catch up with reality. Universities should design consultation, scheduling, and data systems for adult learners and those returning to school from the very beginning, rather than trying to fix things afterwards. Policymakers should provide funding for re-entry programs with the same urgency as they do for enrolling new students, and they should measure success by “completing a degree” rather than just “number of enrollments.” We also need to let go of the outdated image of the “traditional college student” that has been in use for decades, and embrace the group of people who are actually entering campuses: parents, full-time workers, and other adults who come back to complete their degrees.

Higher education, as well as the way we discuss “who it is designed for,” should reflect the students who are truly present on campus this autumn, including those who have returned to complete their unfinished studies.

The views expressed in the commentary articles on the Fortune website represent only the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of Fortune.