More on the Value of Higher Education – and Measurement of

Recently I attended a dinner where conversation ensued about measuring the value or ROI of higher education.  The topic turned to college completion rates relative to measuring completion or the outcomes associated with attaining a degree.  There is a similar notion that millions of students drop out of higher education without a degree – insinuating that higher education is failing.  Can we as an industry do better?  I think for sure – yes. 

That said, addressing the topic of completion, from my perspective, is a two-part story. 

The first involves the student lifecycle and what we in higher education are doing to ensure student persistence.  I am likely a broken record on the topic, but I think many institutions miss the student success priority as it relates to institutional mission, an alternative revenue stream, and word of mouth reputation.  The more students persist, the greater the current student revenue stream is maintained, taking pressure off the need for more new students to generate tuition revenue.  Not that this is or should be a primary driver, but, as an aside, because of the weight put on persistence in the US News ranking methodology, working to increase this metric also influences an institution’s score.    

Related to this, facilitating higher education outcome objectives can come from flexible transfer equivalencies so students do not lose credits when moving from one institution to another.  At multiple institutions I experienced cases where foundational academic courses such as calculus and English were pedagogically constrained such that transferability was nearly impossible resulting in students losing ground upon transferring.  This phenomenon influences completion as well as current student swirl while fueling frustration. 

Also related is the role of student debt in higher education.  Philosophically, I believe students should have some skin in the game from a student loan perspective, but not such that loan debt adversely impacts their ability to live overburdened with debt post-graduation.  Regarding financial aid packaging, philosophically, I also believe in hybrid financial aid approaches that include a merit-based approach with the lion’s share being allocated to meeting a family’s demonstrated financial need where possible.  This allows institutions to enroll students from middle or upper-middle incomes whose family’s may not qualify for need-based financial assistance (but cannot afford the full cost of attendance) while still enrolling students from across the socioeconomic spectrum.  These approaches also serve to facilitate student persistence to completion.    

While a more expensive notion, indexing financial aid as tuition increases also facilitates completion.  Given the expense associated with this initiative, institutions can also implement targeted micro grants to high achieving difference making current students with increased demonstrated financial need who are at-risk of withdrawing from an institution.  Similarly, institutions can implement completion micro grants to students close to completing their credential who have left the institution.  Providing a one or two class return grant to complete their credential influenced graduation rates at two institutions that I served.  Developing financial literacy programs to help students understand the importance of payment plans or loan indebtedness can also influence completion.  Ramping up federal or non-federal work study offerings is another opportunity to assist students with the cost of attendance also facilitating completion. 

The second part of the story involves how college completion is measured.  Students attend different types of institutions for different reasons.  At some institutions, a student’s goal is a professional certification.  At others it may be a badge credential allowing for professional advancement.  This does not involve earning a bachelor’s degree nor an associate degree.  In the above examples, measuring a student’s non degree completion as a failure would be inappropriate as the student achieved his/her educational objectives.  The trick here is how to track and measure different student completion metrics relative to different student achievement goals.  This comes with a level of sophistication in an institution’s student information system that allows for tracking and measurement of student achievement goals. 

So…do we have work to do in higher education to improve completion objectives?  Absolutely.  Above I work to share some different approaches that can assist in the process.