Scroll down to the 2nd chart:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/the-mooc-fades-in-3-charts/55701
Note the top four factors having “the greatest impact on the future of higher education”; on the chart the first is cost, and the next three are essentially “proving the value of a college degree”:
- Cost/student debt – 62%
- Work force development/gainful employment – 42%
- Assessment of learning outcomes – 31%
- Competency-based education – 28%
I have been saying the following for several years:
- Costs are skyrocketing.
- Most colleges and universities cannot empirically demonstrate they have any impact on students whatsoever.
- Surveys indicate that more and more students are going to college for a job, not for general learning.
- As costs skyrocket, students and families more closely examine the costs and benefits of a college degree.
- Due to #1-#4, many institutions are now in a very bad place.
- So here is what we will see:
- Expensive, non-selective privates will begin to close and merge. They can’t demonstrate impact on students, they can’t fall back on selectivity as a proxy for quality outcomes, and they simply cost too much.
- Smart institutions will begin a mad scramble to demonstrate they are worth the cost.
- Thus we see a growing emphasis on a) competency-based education and b) schools demonstrating that their graduates will be gainfully employed.
Most academic leaders get all of the above, hence the results of the Babson survey.
