Is Higher Education Causing Lower Enrollment with the Message We Give Students?

We have backed ourselves into a corner by creating a non-sustainable system of funding education.  For many years we have worked on making college affordable for everyone and did so well we have come full circle.  Students can afford college now, but only because of loans, Pell Grants and other federal funding.  This way of financing higher education is coming to an end as graduates are struggling to pay back the debt they occurred and warning the next generation of college students to be cautious about the cost effectiveness of a degree.

In this article, Five Reasons "Why College Enrollment Might Be Dropping" three out of four reasons enrollment might be dropping point to funding.

The article and I agree that the most critical determent to grow or maintain enrollment in the future is that the career path students take might not factor well with the salary they will earn and their ability to pay back loans.  Right now, the main marketing slogan colleges are using to attract students is that a higher education is a pathway to a high paying career.  Come on now, who are we kidding with this?

Not all students go to college to be rich, or famous or obtain a high powered career.  The fact that students go to college, major in what they love and end up in a low paying career is not a new phenomena. It has been going on since we invented higher education.  Some students choose majors knowing that they will probably never get a high paying job in the career: vertebrate paleontology, ornithology, veterinarian, social work, teaching, religion, English, French, fine arts, music and I can list many, many more.  The reason students major in those areas is that they want the lifestyle the career gives them.  In fact, sometimes the end result will be that their major becomes an avocation; not a vocation.  But that is OK 

Students chose college and the major because they loved the learning experience and, whether or not they even land a job in their major, they will continue as life long learners and dabblers cultivating and expanding on the knowledge and skills they loved in college.  The skills that will land them a good job are writing, critical thinking, antithetical skills, content knowledge, technology, ability to meet deadlines, communication, work ethic, leadership skills, networking, working in groups and self confidence.  Those come with every major.

We do have to fix the expanding cost of education.   There is no doubt about that but some adjustments will come naturally.  The reduction of students opting to go to college will be the market force to prod higher education back to a fair market price. Less demand the less you can charge for the product.  Capitalism is going to start working here.  Adjusting to market value will be a new experience for higher education but one that will force change in how and when education is delivered to students.

But more important is that we are kidding ourselves and students if the only incentive for going to college is the end result of a high paying job. That belief brought throngs of students to college feeding the higher education boom.  That belief will also put us out of business with the next generation of college students.  Higher ed is in the throws of  understanding if we are in the business of education or job training and then packaging a clear message to students about just what they are paying for, what are the rewards, and exactly what a college education will do for them.

What if MOOCs take off and students begin learning on their own and get jobs?  In the late 90's I listened to college professors who thought that online learning was never going to be considered a valid education choice, that a science major could complete a degree, part time, while working, and for profit institutions could lure students away from traditional college.  These thoughts never held true.

Students who are going to take advantage of MOOC's are those who come to college for self satisfaction, interesting in learning about what enchants them, are self motivated, and will be life long learners.  Sounds just like the students we want in college doesn't it?  They will also be the students who are conscious of cost as well as the quality of education they receive.  They can take a MIT engineering course for free versus one from a the local community college that may as scholarly and rigorous to them, but not as prestigious to a future employer.  

What higher education faculty have been promoting forever is that they are in the business of education, enlightenment and achievement.  This still holds true today with faculty's message to students.  As we cut costs and evaluate what is the role of higher education in the next century we have to change our advertising message to students that is more realistic to the product they will walk away with - a richer, fuller lifestyle.

For Profit Colleges Lobbying Expenses - What they could have been spending on their standard of education.

For-Profit Colleges Lobbying Expenses - What they could have been spending on their standard of education.

The New York Times just printed an article on how much money for-profit colleges have spend on lobbying against the new proposal to cut of Pell Grants and student loans to "unfit" educational programs.  This legislation was spurred by the numbers of loans and grants given to students that were hardly college ready or even less likely after graduation to obtain employment with the little and inadequate training they received in their fast track to employment program.  The programs were marketed as a target course to a well paying career, when in fact the only target was to lure students that qualified for federal aid. 

The for-profit colleges bought their win in Washington.  (See the chart below compliments of the New York Times.) The law was watered down and they are now able to continue on their path of taking money and training the permanently unemployable.  This was despite the federally funded report showing poor teaching and learning in for-profit colleges including the five below. (Although University of Phoenix said they prevented the undercover students from enrolling so they are not included in the report.)

Non-profit colleges, your state and local schools paid for in part by taxpayer money, is in the throws of proving that their students are employable after they graduate.  There is a great deal of curriculum changes to make sure students are computer literate, have the writing skills required for the job and are properly educated.  The scrutiny has been heavy handed and coming from all directions. 

Non-profit colleges are responsible to their state and federal legislators, their accreditation agencies and their students who are college ready and prepared for a rigorous curriculum obtained in four (ok, five!) years. Students who are college ready have a choice and they make that choice on the academic standing of the college.  Accountability.  

For those that shrug it off non profits are exploiting the college unprepared, look at a previous post and learn how much money is due from for profit colleges that are going to greatly contribute to the student credit crash coming to our bleak financial picture soon.  Taxpayers will pay.

For-profit colleges have found marketing plans that appear to be more efficient than non-profit colleges.  However they fail to mention that they do not have libraries and rely on students to access public libraries without paying any fees like non-profit college students do.  Students are not involved in research, clubs and organizations, interaction with peers and professors, full time professors (most faculty are part time) or a curriculum tailored to their level and means. 

For-profits have essentially taken the McDonalds route of training college students; one size fits all.   As non-profit colleges struggle with making education more affordable and better at the same time, many of the for-profit business models will be adopted. Let’s hope they adapt the best and not the worse.

Ok, enough of a rant about for-profit colleges.  So, what is the solution to make education better and more affordable?  As non-profit colleges examine seriously their financial well being, they will have to adopt business practices that they have been skirting.  And some of these business practices include what for profit colleges have found to be efficient and student friendly.  Non-profit colleges have been raising costs often just because they could as more and more federal aid has become available.  With the warm body count being how colleges were funded by state and federal legislators, their graduation rates have decreased drastically as they, embarrassingly, have been accepting students who were not college ready and professors not educated in how to deal with these students. See the  Student Debt and Default in the 12th District. 

What are non-profits looking at that is successful in for profit colleges:

1.  More connection with industry and industry projects on what skills, knowledge, and technology college graduates should have.

2.  A change from the traditional one semester/quarter fits all courses and  offer courses that are more student friendly in length, time and days.

3.  A strong look at administrative salaries, positions, and accountability. 

4.  More flexible curriculum to allow students more opportunity to tailor their educational path towards a job and not a career in academics. 

What can they learn to make themselves better:
1.  Do not accept students that are not college ready if faculty are not prepared to teach this demographic group.
2.  A high default rate will threaten your well being, accreditation, and reputation.

Millions of dollars spent on federal lobbying from January 2010 to October 2011

Bridgepoint Education (owner of Ashford University

and University of the Rockies)                                           1.41

Education Management Corporation                                 1.42

Corinthian College                                                            1.43

Apollo Group (owner of University of Phoenix)                 1.45

Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities     1.60

Career Education Corporation                                          1.65

Coalition for Educational Success                                  

Washington Post Company (owner of Kaplan University) 1.71

As a point of interest, I could not find an article in the Washington Post about the proposed crackdown of for profit colleges.  Jay Matthews wrote a blurb in his column both saying he was not in favor of for profit colleges, however he gave 5 reasons why they will not disappear.