The Future of College
Jeffrey Selingo | September 2013 @jselingo
and What It Means for Students
The Higher Ed Industry
| 5,300 colleges & universities in the U.S.
| $490 billion in annual revenues
| Employ 3.5 million people
| Hold $990 billion in assets
Rising Tuition, Flat Income
1
4
2 Fewer Full Paying Students
Sea of Red Ink3$307,000,000,000Amount of debt taken on by colleges, which has almost doubled just since 2001.
The Major Chase 4| 2 out of every 5 majors today didn’t exist in 1990
| 20% increase in majors since 2000
Source:
Rasmussen Reports
The Value Gap5
400K4 in 5Students drop out of college annually
33%Transfer Drop outDrifting
An Unbound Future
The only really necessary people
in the publishing process now are the writer and the reader. Everyone who stands between
those two has both risk and opportunity.-Russell Grandinetti
Vice President, Amazon
Jose Jaimes
The Swirl
U of Florida
Valencia College
U of Central Florida
Bachelor’s Degree
23% of community college students today come from households earning $100K+
Jennifer Black
Mixing Mediums
Face-to-
FaceOnline Hybrid
Degree in 4 years
Jennifer took ¼ of her courses online or in hybrid format
Sheryl Schuh
Competency Based
U of Wisconsin, Northern Arizona U, and U of Southern New Hampshire launched
competency-based programs in 2013
Shortest class: 2 weeks
Longest class: 14 weeks
Tuition $18,000 TOTAL
BA in 2 years
33 partners2M students
20 partners500K students
Sam Romano
Bypassing the Degree
33 partners2M students
20 partners500K students
Sam Romano
Bypassing the Degree
InstiOne
reservation Many
airlines One ticket
FOne
admissionMany
colleges
One transcript/p
ortfolio
Structured Pathways
CollegeHigh School
Transition to Work
How should I value the traditional
campus experience?
Making the Match
9 in 10 students want an interesting major no matter “how practical it is”
1 in 4 freshmen change their major
Rise in double majors
Sources: UCLA Higher Education Research Institute; “Double Majors: Influences, Identities & Impacts.”
Dive deep into a research project
2
Seek passionate faculty1
Be creative. Take Risks. Learn how to fail.
4
Go on a global experience3
President’s College Scorecard“Parents and students can
use to compare schools based on a simple criteria:
where you can get the most bang for your educational
buck.”
-President Obama, 2013 State of the Union address
What is your ROI?
| What is grad rate for students like you?
| How many first-year students return for their second semester?
| What is the job placement rate?
| Where are last year’s grads working? 5 years ago? 10 years ago?
President’s College Scorecard
College Reality Check
State Employment Records
Arkansas
Colorado
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
How mobile are the credits?
| What is the % of students who transfer?
| What % of credits does college accept? Why does it deny?
| Would the college accept MOOC credits?
| Does college have partnerships with other schools to accept credits?
How tech-savvy is the college?
| Can students take a variety of formats, online and hybrid?
| Do professors ‘flip the classroom’?
| Is adaptive learning technology used?
| Does college use open courseware?
What are the college’s priorities?
| What % of students get A’s? B’s?
| What is the % of full-time faculty? What % of first-year classes do they teach?
| % of classes with more than 40 pages of reading/week and 20 pages/semester?
| Does college use CLA?
Does college prepare for 5th job?
| Do students participate in undergrad research projects?
| How many students participate in internships or field work?
| What % of students study abroad?
| % of students with double majors?
What is college’s financial health?
| What is the discount rate?
| Has the college made its enrollment target in recent years?
| What is the college’s bond rating?
| How much debt has the college taken on?
Can you compare aid offers?
| What is % of graduates with debt? What is the average debt?
| What is the average parent debt?
| When do applicants find out about aid? Ask for a sample aid letter
| What is % of grads who owe >$30K?