{"id":778,"date":"2017-08-04T13:29:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T17:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.acadiate.com\/?p=778"},"modified":"2017-08-04T13:29:21","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T17:29:21","slug":"case-higher-ed-job-focused-world-facing-skeptical-public-politicians-campus-business-officers-discuss-strategies-making-practical-case-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.acadiate.com\/case-higher-ed-job-focused-world-facing-skeptical-public-politicians-campus-business-officers-discuss-strategies-making-practical-case-higher-education\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case for Higher Ed in a Job-Focused World: Facing skeptical public and politicians, campus business officers discuss strategies for making a more practical case for higher education."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n MINNEAPOLIS — As the former president of two small liberal arts colleges and Pennsylvania\u2019s independent college group, Brian C. Mitchell believes \u201cwith all my heart\u201d in the traditional case for American higher education: that it helps produce full and productive members of an engaged citizenry.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a noble argument, the right argument,\u201d he told an audience at the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers. But \u201cit just doesn\u2019t matter given the environment,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t resonate.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not that Mitchell thinks there isn\u2019t a good case to be made for higher education. And the former president of Washington & Jefferson College and Bucknell University doesn\u2019t accept the idea that colleges and universities collectively face a \u201cdoomsday scenario,\u201d as some prognosticators tend to predict.<\/p>\n But in an era in which American society is much more \u201ctransactional,\u201d many institutions are increasingly being judged by different standards of performance and public policy arguments are taking place on Twitter, \u201cwe need to fight\u00a0\u2026 in clear and definitive ways, by making a case for American higher education that is neither defensive nor outlandish,\u201d Mitchell said during a session called \u201cIs College Worth It? Communicating the Value of Higher Education.\u201d<\/p>\n That case shouldn\u2019t abandon the idea that colleges exist to educate broadly and to prepare people to be productive citizens — but it also must recognize that students and families do want postsecondary education and training to prepare them for career success, said Mitchell, who is now\u00a0a consultant<\/a>.<\/p>\n “We have to prove that we not only educate and [build] discipline, but also that we allow students to articulate, write and communicate, apply quantitative methods and technology, and work in a collaborative setting\u201d — all the things, he said, that employers say they want most.<\/p>\n He added, \u201cAmerican higher education has lost the argument, but that doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t win it back.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitchell\u2019s words probably stung the convention hall full of chief business officers and other administrators less than they would an audience of professors. Many academics are loath to buy into the view that a college education is exclusively, even mostly, about employability.<\/p>\n But Carrie Warick, director of policy and advocacy at the National College Access Network, presented data from several recent surveys of students showing that a college\u2019s success in placing graduates into jobs was high on prospective students\u2019 list of reasons for deciding where to enroll (with costs also near the top).<\/p>\n Warick also shared data to reinforce the reality that for most Americans, a higher education is still a good investment, showing that young millennials with only a high school diploma are three times likelier to be unemployed and twice as likely to be out of the labor force entirely.<\/p>\n Those facts aren\u2019t enough to overcome the\u00a0growing doubts<\/a>\u00a0among\u00a0many Americans<\/a>\u00a0about the value of a degree and the contributions colleges make to society, as recent public opinion surveys have revealed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost innate in us that of course there\u2019s value in a higher education degree,\u201d said Liz Clark, director of federal affairs at the business officers\u2019 association. \u201cWhile you may go to work in the morning and very deeply believe in the mission of what you and your colleagues do every day, there are a lot of people out there questioning the value of that work.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of those people work in state legislatures and in Washington, and they cite other findings to build their critique, such as low graduation rates, perceived skills gaps and steadily rising tuition and student loan debt levels.<\/p>\n Participants in the session acknowledged that those are real problems and that colleges and universities must do better in retaining and graduating students and holding down prices. Many of the other sessions at the meeting were dedicated to sharing strategies for addressing those very real flaws.<\/p>\n