WASHINGTON (AP) — For a generation of young Americans choosing where to go to college, Should I go at all? — has become a complex calculation of costs and benefits, often revolving around one question: Is the degree worth its price?
Public trust in higher education is increasing plummeted With tuition fees rising rapidly in recent years, student loan and dire job market — plus ideological concerns From conservatives. Universities are now scrambling to prove their worth to students.
Borrowed from the business world, the term “return on investment” is plastered on college advertisements across the country. A new series of rankings grades campuses by the economic benefits they offer. States like Colorado have begun issuing annual reports on college financial returns, and Texas takes it into account when calculating how much taxpayer money goes to community colleges.
“Students are becoming more aware of the times when going to college is not rewarding,” said Preston Cooper, who has studied college ROI at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “It’s not necessarily the same as it was 15 or 20 years ago, but this is a top priority for universities today.”
Most bachelor’s degrees still have value
A wide range of research shows that a bachelor’s degree remains beneficial, at least on average and over the long term. But there is growing recognition that not all degrees lead to higher salaries, and even those that look like good bets are becoming increasingly risky as graduates face problems such as: Toughest job market in years.
According to a new analysis published Thursday by the Strada Educational Foundation. 70% of recent graduates from public universities They can expect positive returns within 10 years. This means that over 10 years, you will earn more than the cost of your degree and more than the typical high school graduate. But the percentage varies by state, with states with more affordable college costs performing better, ranging from 53% in North Dakota to 82% in Washington, D.C., the report said.
This is a critical issue for families wondering what will happen to their college tuition costs. You will be rewarded somedaysaid Emilia Mattucci, a high school counselor at a school in East Allegheny, near Pittsburgh. More than two-thirds of the school’s students come from low-income families, and many are unwilling to take on the levels of debt that past generations accepted.
Instead, an increasing number of people are going on to vocational schools and vocational schools, and then to four-year universities.
“A lot of families just say they can’t afford it or they just don’t want to go into debt for years and years,” she says.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon He is among those who question the need for a four-year degree. Speaking at the Reagan Institute think tank in September, McMahon praised programs that prepare students for careers right out of high school.
“I’m not saying kids shouldn’t go to college,” she said. “What I’m saying is that not all kids need to go to school to be successful.”
Lower university tuition fees and improve graduate student incomes
American higher education has grappled with both sides of the ROI equation: tuition and graduate student income. Its importance is growing as universities compete The number of university students is decreasing Consequences of declining birth rates.
tuition fee It remains flat. To address affordability concerns, which has been adopted by many campuses in recent years, many private universities have lowered their list prices to better reflect the costs that most students actually pay after financial aid is taken into account.
The other part of the equation, making sure graduates get good jobs, is more complex.
A group of university presidents recently gathered at Gallup’s Washington headquarters to study polling on higher education. Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz, one of the leaders of the conference, said one of the main reasons for the wavering in confidence is the perception that universities are not giving graduates the skills employers need.
“We’re trying to get out before that happens,” he said.
The issue has been Guskiewicz’s top priority since he arrived on campus last year. He assembled a council of Michigan business leaders to identify the skills graduates need for jobs from agriculture to banking. The goal is to shape degree programs to suit the needs of the job market and provide students with internships and work experience that lead to employment.
Disconnect from the job market
Matt Siegelman, president of the Burning Glass Institute, a think tank that studies the workforce, said closing the gap with the job market is a persistent struggle for U.S. universities. Last year, the institute, in collaboration with Strada researchers, found that 52% of recent college graduates work in jobs that don’t require a degree. High-demand fields such as education and nursing also had many graduates in such situations.
“No program is exempt and no school is exempt,” Siegelman said.
The federal government has been trying to solve the problem for decades, dating back to President Barack Obama’s administration. The federal rule, first enacted in 2011, aimed to reduce federal funding to college programs with low graduate incomes, but primarily targeted for-profit colleges.
A Republican reconciliation bill passed this year takes a broader view, requiring most colleges to meet revenue thresholds to qualify for federal funding. The goal is for college graduates to end up earning more than those without a degree.
Some believe that transparency is a key solution.
For decades, students had little way to know whether graduates of a particular degree program were getting good jobs after college. That started to change, university scorecard In 2015, a federal website sharing extensive revenue results for university programs. Recently, bipartisan legislation Congress is trying to provide more detailed data to the public.
North Carolina lawmakers have ordered a 2023 study of the economic rewards of earning degrees across the state’s public universities. The results showed that 93% had a positive return. This means graduates can expect to earn more over their lifetime than those without a similar degree.
This data is publicly available and shows, for example, that at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, bachelor’s degrees in applied mathematics and business tend to have high returns, while graduate degrees in psychology and foreign languages often do not.
UNC-Chapel Hill President Lee Roberts said in an interview that the university is belatedly recognizing how important that kind of data is to students and their families.
“In times of uncertainty, students are understandably more focused on what their job prospects will be,” he added. “So I think the university really owes this data to students and their families.”
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