Posts Tagged: value of higher education

As College Signing Day approaches, we cheer on the high school students who have decided to immediately continue on to college. And we also celebrate the millions of adults joining them, whose lives have taken various paths since graduating high school.

The American Enterprise Institute investigated factors that might explain such variation in mobility rates in their latest report, “Is the University Next Door the Way to Upward Mobility?” Taking a specific look at comprehensive universities, public institutions that primarily enroll students who live near the campus, AEI reveals upward mobility ranges from around 30 percent to over 70 percent at competitive schools and less selective schools.

With civil discourse seemingly deteriorating on campuses and a public that is increasingly questioning the value of higher education, higher education leaders now more than ever are faced with the challenge of re-affirming the public mission of higher education. The ACE2019 session “Democracy, Civic Engagement, and Citizenship in Higher Education: A Global Perspective” looked at the problem.

There hasn’t been a hotter topic in higher education circles over the past several years than whether the public no longer believes that a college education is worth the cost—or at least as a good a value as in years past—and if so, why? And what can be done to demonstrate to Americans that by any standard, the average person with a postsecondary degree is better off than someone without one? Three veteran journalists gathered at ACE2019 to assess these questions.

ACE President Ted Mitchell introduces the Council’s new Strategic Framework, which will underpin the organization for the next three years and help chart a successful course for the future of higher education.

In 2017, The University of Texas System entered into a 10-year partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau to create a pathway for higher education institutions and state education authorities to access critical data needed to show the value of a college degree. The result was seekUT, a web tool that provides students and families an easy way to see salaries of graduates by program of study compared to student debt.

Watch Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, talk about why he believes higher education matters now more than ever at ACE2018. Hrabowski is the recipient of the 2018 ACE Lifetime Achievement Award.

CASE President Sue Cunningham talks about why we need to tell the story of higher education as a public good—and how to do it.