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Recently I’ve been asked some interesting questions about higher education and I thought I’d take a crack at working out some answers here.  Feel free to leave a comment if you wish.

Question 1:

What are the most pressing issues for the sustainability of higher education in the 21st century?

The most pressing issue facing American higher education, as a whole, is the perception that the value of a college education and college degree no longer justifies the cost of attendance. While few doubt the value of attending the most elite institutions, where competition for admission is fierce, and where completion provides graduates with pathways to success, many parents and students wonder if attending the local public college or university is worth the price.  Engaging in the “return on investment,” debate is objectionable to many people inside higher education. But dismissing the question of “ROI” imperils all of higher education.

Leaders in higher education have to explain the intrinsic value of learning, the instrumental benefits of the college experience, and the extrinsic worth of a college degree to a skeptical public.

And our arguments can’t be a justification for the ever-increasing cost of attendance.  While we’re trumpeting the benefits of attending college we have to find ways to exert downward pressure on tuition and fees.  Of course our state governments should restore funding for public colleges and universities.  Yes, we should seek philanthropic support for our schools.  But ultimately we have to decide, do we want to support a higher education system that reinforces social inequity and stratification or do we hope that our institutions contribute to class mobility?

If it’s the latter, then we have to work to challenge a college rating system based on scarcity and exclusivity.  This is elitism in the worst sense.  Currently the “best’ colleges are the ones that admit the lowest percentage of those that apply.  Colleges get no points for subscribing to an access mission.  In an attempt to shift the frame, The NY Times developed the “College Access Index,” as an alternative to the “best college” ranking systems.  The CAI ranks the 171 public and private colleges with a five-year graduate rate of at least 75% by percent of pell-grant students and net price for for lower- and middle-income families.  This “affordability” ranking includes many of the “top” schools.  But it’s also clear that many schools could be doing much more to make their campuses affordable to lower- and middle-income families.

More soon about “non-traditional” students and academic credentials.

-rs

A New Value Proposition for Higher Education

Part 1.

There’s been flood of books and articles questioning the “value” of a college or university degree.  After all, costs are high, debt levels are up, and prospects for college graduates are, at best, uncertain.  In this environment alternatives sprout like mushrooms.  Theil fellowships encourage students to drop out and start a business.  Uncollege proposes alternatives for autodidacts who want to hack their way to the equivalent of a college degree.  William Bennett calls for vocational training as a more practical and less elitist route to the middle class. Straighter Line seeks to replace the first two years of college with a transferable online curriculum.

Some of these alternatives seem to be taking hold. While demand for places at the country’s top schools remains strong, a recent NACUBO report notes that many smaller private colleges can’t fill their incoming classes.

Clearly there is a social value of an educated and engaged citizenry.  Colleges and universities prepare leaders that will shape the direction of government, industry and culture.  Educated citizens solve problems that improve people’s lives, participate in public decision making that affect our communities, and promote innovation and change.  We all have a stake in having an educated citizenry.

But the broader social value comes as the result of many individual decisions.  If we want people to continue to seek higher learning, it is critical for college and university leaders to understand how the relationship between students and their institutions are shifting.  They need to put themselves in the students’ shoes–students who understand the importance of college differently than those of us inside the institutions.

 So what does a student “get” from going to college?  College’s market the transformational experience that comes from exposure to passionate scholars asking big questions.  But most students and their families aren’t plunging into decades of debt for the transformational experience, even if that is the real and most noble outcome.  Colleges implicitly or explicitly assert that a student gains skills and abilities, immediate and long term opportunities for employment, and a network of alumni that can provide both social and professional connections.  To the student the value of a college degree is the certification that s/he has obtained these abilities, can perform in socially specified ways, and is entitled to affiliate with others from the same institution.

For centuries the only way to get this certification was to physically come to a college or university.  Knowledge was a precious commodity, abundant only at colleges and universities and scarce everywhere else.  Despite public libraries, learned societies and public lectures, access to information was limited.  Unlike the ubiquitous public elementary school, college was for the few, not the many.  Not everyone had the mind, discipline, or desire that would allow them to succeed in college.  And prestigious colleges built their reputation on limiting access to this precious resource.  We still measure the quality of an academic institution by the number of applicants it rejects. Most Ivy League schools accept less than 10% of their applicants.  Scarcity of access validates the institution and the students who come there in a perverse self-reinforcing cycle.

But scarcity isn’t only a function of prestige.  In public higher education it is often a question of capacity–there just aren’t enough classrooms and labs to hold all of the students who want to come to college.  And while we think of college life reserved for a particular age group, 18 to 24 year olds, of the 17 million students currently enrolled at a college or university, 15 million of them are considered, “non-traditional:” older, working, and often single parents.

Amid the widespread calls for increasing the educational attainment of American citizens there simply isn’t enough room for everyone who wants a college degree.  The actual and perceived value of the degree, combined with the scarcity of access, is one reason why costs are so high.

Check back for part two —  Challenging the traditional frame – from the industrial model to the service model

The sense of dynamic change in higher education is an illusion.  Most colleges and universities are engaged in the traditional practice of bringing students and faculty members together in class—a certain number of hours per class, per semester, over eight or so semesters, and the student earns a degree.

For all the news reports about MOOC’s and online education most EdX or Coursera courses don’t come with college credit.  No credit, no degree.  And the degree is the thing.

But new competency based degree programs are challenging the credit hour as the key currency of higher education.  If a school can award credit based on what a student learns, not on how long they study, then real alternative credentials will quickly follow.

If the credit hour crumbles the value and worth of a BA degree might be next.   Students, educators, parents, employers, and the public might demand credentials that validate real learning as opposed to just doing time.

I’ve spent 15 days this August in Chicago—first at the University Film and Video Association conference and then at the American Council on Education Fellows retreat.

The conference was truly excellent, with inspiring presentations in all media.  I’m pleased to report that my film Passing Through was recognized with the Award of Merit in the Experimental Film category at the Conference.

I’ve spent the last five days at the ACE Fellows opening retreat.  The outstanding program allowed all of the Fellows to learn about strategic planning and budgeting and to apply this new knowledge to a simulated problem-solving case.  We visit a local University tomorrow and then it is back to Cambridge.

Is Going to College Worth it?