According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Shaw University has had a rough year. Shaw is the oldest historically black institution and is known for its contributions to the civil-rights movement. A few months ago a tornado hit the university, blowing the roof off of the student center which forced the college to cancel all remaining classes. The damage the tornado inflicted on the university falls second to a report from PayScale that Shaw provides the single worst return on investments for students.
PayScale is a private organization that uses a nonrandom, self-report sample of earnings to produce a return of investment ranking of 690 colleges and universities from top to bottom. The California Institute of Technology can be found at the top of the list as it produces a 30-year net return of $1,713,000 for its graduates. Shaw University, on the other hand, weighs in at $15, 480. Some have questioned the methods that companies such as PayScale use to collect their data. Some states compare their college-student databases to unemployment-insurance databases to determine average earnings by college. The author, Kevin Carey, suggests that we use information from the Social Security Administration to formulate an accurate portrayal of what universities are REALLY offering students.
Mr. Carey believes that as the economy struggles and institutions continue to conform to business models more “consumers (students)” are going to demand information like what is offered by PayScale. Potential students and their parents are going to want to know how much money a student will make once they have graduated. In other words, institutions are going to have to show students the money or they’ll be headed for the door. Mr. Carey believes that providing this information to students may be of value to both the institutions and potential students. Two-year colleges who traditionally focus more on providing specific skills may benefit from earnings information. This information may encourage students who are on the fence about going to college to give it a shot.
Mr. Carey states that Graduate-earnings data is the next big trend in validating the value of higher education. Although I am all for institutions being accountable for the education they provide for students I think that this measuring stick places too much value on the dollar. As cliché as it may sound, my experiences and the life-long relationships I’ve formed throughout my time in education has been far more rewarding than any monetary gain. My fear is that institutions will start to design their policies and procedures in a way that would ensure they don’t end up on the bottom of the list like Shaw University. This might result in institutions recruiting those who are already wealthy and have a greater chance of earning higher salaries once they’ve earned their degree. This would only undo any progress that has been made to increase the opportunity for ALL students to access higher education.
I really appreciate Aaron's bringing this topic to attention, regarding the general concept of equating the value of a college education by how much future material income that education will produce on average (through use of metrics such as Payscale Inc. strives to provide).
ReplyDeleteThis is essentially the essence of Neo-Liberalism, I suppose; the translating through commodification of intellectual process, product, and life into saleable services and goods. We as higher education institutions as a whole and as individual cogs in the Machine ultimately worth what we can return on the open market.
But is this really what we want out of higher education, folks? That is the Big question for us, huh? I looked up the results of a Pew Research Survey released on May 15, 2011 (see: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1993/survey-is-college-degree-worth-cost-debt-college-presidents-higher-education-system ) that attempted to ascertain what the general public really thinks of and wants from higher education.
The results (open the link for methodology info.) revealed that 57% of the extrapolated general public say that our national higher ed. system fails to provide good value for the money spent, and 75% believe college is too expensive to afford. And yet, paradoxically, 86% say that college was a good investment for them personally, among those who actually have attended college. Interesting dichotomy! (Perhaps some of the disconnect here was in how they worded the questions...)
There's more. Adults who earned a four-year degree believe for some reason that on average they have earned some $20,000 more a year because of earning that degree...(I guess that wouldn't apply to Shaw University grads according to Payscale Inc.'s equation). A staggering 94% of the parents want their own kids to still go to college, even though mathematically according to the earlier poll question many of these parents don't believe college nowadays returns adequate value for the money....(another seeming contradiction).
Meanwhile, about 47% of the respondents believe college's primary mission is career preparation and enhancement (meaning, I suppose, making good money and securing some financial security), while 39% say college is mainly about promoting personal and intellectual growth (while the other 14% were equally divided on this issue). Interestingly, among survey respondents who graduated from a four-year college, 74% say their college education was very useful in helping them grow intellectually, 69% say it was very useful in helping them grow and mature as a person, and 55% say it was very useful in helping them prepare for a job or career (and so, for those who believe college isn't returning adequate value for the money, I suppose many of those respondents believe college should provide more career preparation and enhancement skills and knowledge, since only 55% believe college is very useful in this regard).
Interestingly, respondents generally expressed that, while they value college, they value character even more. Asked what it takes for a young person to succeed in the world, 61% say a good work ethic is extremely important and 57% say the same about knowing how to get along with people. Just 42% say the same about a college education. And so, this begs the question, where do our young people learn to develop a good work ethic and how to get along with people? Not necessarily during academic class time, huh? But then, that is where Student Affairs can come in handy, no? In helping our students learn and develop these highly regarded "soft skills", no? Just random musings at 1:35 in the morning...
I think in many ways we have already reached the place you are illuding to, Aaron. The new Gainful Employment legislation is begining to hold institutions accountable for what happens to their graudates upon graduation. As a community college we engage in a mandatory survey each year of our career and technical education graduates to find out if they are employed and how much they are making. The National Association for Colleges and Employers publishes this kind of information every year
ReplyDeletehttp://www.naceweb.org/Research/Job_Outlook/Job_Outlook.aspx?referal=research&menuID=69&nodetype=4
Engineering tops all the lists. And, so we have governors making statements about only providing financial aid to students who major in STEM fields.
I am similarly fearful and also believe this will be a hotly debated topic in the years to come!
If I'm being assessed for what my graduates produce, I might be more careful about who I let in. How seriously will future students take these numbers? A business school is likely to have much higher numbers than a college of liberal arts. Moreover, if an institution is trying to provide access for all of Colorado, their numbers are going to be much lower than a school that attracts richer students. Not surprisingly, this leads to Libby's comment - that politicians make statements about only funding STEM fields.
ReplyDeleteLibby, I had no idea that community colleges had to undergo this survey. That's fascinating.
Interesting article, posts and comments on this one. So many different ways to approach the whole issue in terms of the whats and whys of higher education. Michael's detailed stats illustrate a lot of those complexities that higher education is seen as almost a "necessary evil" in terms of being both too expensive to afford and too valuable not to pay for. I suppose there are some potential implications in that statement.
ReplyDeleteBeau also makes some good points. If this becomes the "measuring stick" for the value of an education what happens to those programs and degrees that do not yield massive return on investment... what happens to schools that specialize in those degrees. Heck, what happens to education and educating educators... scary stuff!!
Given our operational environment in the current age of Higher Education, we may have to face this reality. We have to find ways to bolster our value proposition to students. Finding an after-market element to include in our CBA could certainly pose problems for funding and compensation. If the cost of programs becomes linked to after-graduation performance variables (ie: earnings of degree holders) then how are we to make budgetary decisions for disparate program offerings? What other benchmark could we find to connect our value proposition to? Some have attempted to equate success to consumer commodities (ie: reframing poverty by examining the property of those classified as "poor.") What are the ethical flaws to this approach? Some are trying to recast the stability of states by something other than GDP - but this, too, is rife with conflicts. What else can we look at to reframe our value proposition to students?
ReplyDeleteDavid Dorr
While there are flaws with this system, it has the potential to develop into a very useful tool for both universities and potential students. While I agree that there is a lot more to college than the paycheck that will be collected upon completion, and that social and personal development are very important, most students to attend college because of the opportunities that will be provided to them after graduation. The development and social connections are vital, but they really are just perks that are picked up along the way.
ReplyDeleteIf this system does become as important to students as suggested, then it may be in each university’s interest to assist in the way data is collected for the rankings. It appears that the methods used now are questionable, and could unintentionally give a good university a bad name. Universities and colleges may be willing to corporate or partner with the organization to ensure their rankings are more accurate.