Recent years have seen a dramatic shift among Americans in the perceived value of a college education, according to entrepreneur Rick Inatome.
A 2022 survey by Public Agenda found that 51% of respondents believe “a college education is a questionable investment.” Participants in the study viewed American colleges and universities to be “stuck in the past,” ill-prepared to meet contemporary challenges and misaligned with current and emerging career opportunities.
Doubts about the Value of a College Degree Mount Despite Demonstrable Advantages
These sentiments are held despite Harris Poll data indicating that 90% of Spring 2023 graduates said college was worthwhile and viewed a degree as the best way to secure their future. Empirical evidence, moreover, still shows that college graduates have significantly higher earnings and better employment rates than their counterparts with high school diplomas. Nonetheless, one in five high school students in 2023 said they will not go to college due to doubts about the ROI – a rapid increase from 8% of the cohort that started college in 2019.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data paint a rosy picture of a college education’s ROI. They note, among other things, that holders of bachelor’s degrees earn ~$30,000 more annually than their high school diploma counterparts. Offsetting this shine, however, is the fact that the average American household with student debt owed $55,347 as of late 2023.
Public pessimism about the long-term benefits of a college degree spans the political spectrum. Most Americans, even if conceding historical value, project diminishing utility based upon persistently high costs, long-term debt load, misalignment between degree programs and market demands, and alternative pathways to success. What for prior generations was considered a guaranteed path to financial stability and success thus has become viewed with mounting doubt and skepticism – especially (as the above data indicate) among students approaching college age.
Dreams Confront Harsh Realities; Alternative Pathways Emerge
Expectations that a college degree would guarantee a successful career have collided with reality, as many graduates have struggled to secure employment in their area of study. In a rapidly changing job market and emergence of a digital economy, there is an emerging disconnect between traditional degrees and in demand skills. Long gone are the days that a liberal or fine arts degree sufficed as a ticket for admission into the workplace.
For some, vocational training, apprenticeships, and online certifications incubating practical skills provide alternative and more cost-efficient pathways to the contemporary job market. The high-profile success stories of entrepreneurs, innovators, and modern-day titans of industry have further led prospective students to question the need of a college education to achieve their goals.
One silver lining of the recent public health crisis was that it heightened sensitivity of many higher education leaders to the imperative of change. There has been no shortage of ideas, and in some instances implementations, for change. Among these are an emphasis upon real world skills, partnerships with business that provide networking opportunities and potential job placements, flexible learning options, enhanced career services, more comprehensive student evaluations and intervention tools, improved engagement between faculty and students, and personal and professional development that build habits of success valued by employers.
Barriers to Change Abound
Perhaps the greatest challenge to aligning colleges and universities with the times is their traditional model of governance. New ideas and processes typically must break through comfort zones and resistance. Hierarchy and bureaucracy can make decision-making a time consuming and cumbersome process. Faculty governance in particular, being dependent upon consensus to effectuate change, is inherently a slow-motion process with much ado yielding little but diffused responsibility, minimal accountability, and risk aversion.
Compounding the barriers to progress is an emphasis upon tenure, which places a premium upon individual achievement over collaborative innovation and prioritizes scholarship (that often is merely grist for the mill rather than a product of real social utility). It is a well-established allure, moreover, to the type of personality that values the status quo – precisely the orientation that resists change.
Accreditation standards also can play a role in retarding progress by promoting a one-size-fits-all model that limits innovation. Although designed to ensure quality and accountability, accreditation requirements are a form of self-regulation that can favor insiders over new entrants and be slow to evolve from traditional values. It was the recent pandemic, for instance, that was the impetus for accelerated normalization of online education.
Change management is a challenge in any organized setting but, given academic norms and traditions, even more so in a higher education environment. It is relatively easy to identify useful changes, but the most important ones are mindset and culture. Faculty governance cannot be allowed to operate as a bulwark against change, and administrative leadership – unless abused — need not be timid.
Strategies and Tools for Change
Against this backdrop, incentives and rewards can be established for innovation, collaboration, and adaptability. Tenure and promotion decisions can take into account those factors and others that align with strategically valued change. Tenure itself should be understood consistent with its original purpose as a protector of freedom of expression and thought and not an absolute guarantee of lifetime employment.
Trustees can hire institutional leaders who inspire with a compelling vision and rely upon data and feedback that inform decision-making and provide the basis for planning and decisions that drive continuous improvement. Ensuring that administrators, faculty, and staff are conversant in and centered upon the school’s vision, mission, strategic objectives, and team and personal values can help minimize the “independent contractor” syndrome and galvanize greater unity of purpose toward desired goals.
To the extent there is anything approaching a magic bullet, it is process – but not the type of process common in academic institutions that leads to paralysis or contemplating navels. Rather it consists of proven methodologies that drive continuous improvement in branding, marketing, enrollments, faculty, staff, and student engagement, and key academic outcomes. Such tools enable decision-making based upon data and metrics instead of anecdotes and fish stories. Timely action and speed of execution happen when deans and department heads lead faculty and staff meetings in which decisions are a function of collaborative-decisive principles rather than consensus.
There is no shortage of change options that can increase public confidence in higher education and elevate the value proposition for students. None is more important than a shift from self-limiting mindsets to outcome-centered processes and cultures. Those institutions that capitalize on the ponderous tendencies of their competition ultimately are the ones that will secure their long-term relevance and success by offering a value proposition worthy of investment.
About Rick Inatome
Rick Inatome is a transformative business and education leader whose legacy includes being an architect of the digital age. Working with other pioneers such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, he established a disruptive technology distribution channel that introduced the personal computer first to the general public and then to corporate America. Rick Inatome is among a select group of tech giants in the Computer Hall of Fame and was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. magazine. He has founded and managed various private equity funds, served on numerous boards, and is in demand as a consultant, change management expert, mentor, and public speaker. If you would like to discuss strategies and tools that can effectuate changes that will strengthen your institution’s position in today’s market environment, you can reach him at rinatome@collegiopartners.com.
