OPINION:
(Correction, an earlier version of this column misspelled Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig’s name)
College enrollment is plummeting. While the pandemic may have accelerated this trend, the ever-rising cost of college has left students making a cost-benefit analysis that often favors entering the workforce instead of seeking a traditional degree. Unless colleges modernize and find ways to make higher education more affordable, we can anticipate this trend will continue.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics data, over the past 40 years, the cost of college has increased by 169%. Meanwhile, earnings for workers between the typical post-college ages of 22 and 27 have increased by just 19%.
And these costs are trending upward.
On average, the cost for public universities increases roughly 3% a year, with private universities increasing slightly more, averaging 3.85% increases every year. Alongside rising inflation, many students are finding obtaining a college degree unaffordable without amassing massive amounts of student loans.
The real fear of student loan debt and the rising cost of goods, as well as a job market in desperate need of workers, has led more and more students to make the determination that higher education is not worth the cost. This is, in part, why there are 1 million fewer students enrolled in college now than before the start of the pandemic.
And this decline is not spread out evenly. The impact of the high costs of higher education particularly hurts children from low-income families, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, which reports “unprecedented” declines in the number of students from high-poverty and low-income high schools who immediately go on to higher education.
But this short-term calculation might have devastating long-term effects.
People with only a high school degree earn significantly less than those who go on to earn bachelor’s degrees and are much more likely to live in poverty and be unemployed.
Brick and mortar institutions need to innovate and find ways to cut costs, or this trend will continue to the detriment of the success of the next generation.
Tech education leaders like Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig have urged colleges and universities to reform for years. In March of last year, Mr. Rosensweig noted that 75% of all students are in favor of at least a hybrid system of higher education, underscoring the fact that young adults are realizing they do not need to attend an expensive state or private four-year university to complete freshman year requirements. More and more students, he said, are taking these courses at community colleges and then “transferring them in to save money.”
“The unit economics for colleges are going to be disastrous,” Mr. Rosensweig told an audience during the 2021 Jefferies Virtual Online Education/E-learning conference. “If they think people are going to continue to pay these exorbitant rates, force you to live in a dorm, force you to pay for a food service. … This is something where the empire will try to strike back for a while, but the students will reject it.”
Another 78% of all students say they go to college for the sole purpose of getting a better job, Mr. Rosensweig told Yahoo News in 2020. He predicted that if schools fail to reduce costs, expand their curriculum to include skills-related courses, and at least in part go online, “they will go out of business.”
Chegg, which was launched in the face of skyrocketing textbook prices, has since expanded into an all-encompassing online learning platform. These types of platforms can help colleges and universities looking to adopt competency-based higher education, which reorients programs to focus on mastery of competencies rather than time in the classroom. This type of learning gives students materials and faculty resources to learn at their own pace.
Learning platforms like Khan Academy and Chegg, or other resources like YouTube, also help students learn the material in the way that fits best with their schedule, which is particularly beneficial for nontraditional students. Students can then demonstrate they’ve mastered the defined competencies through tests or other assessments. Competency-based programs offer the potential to obtain degrees and certificates at a significantly lower cost to students.
Digital textbooks can also dramatically reduce student costs, as can open education systems that provide students with opportunities to earn some of their course credit online. Additionally, with better quality education apps appearing on the market regularly, educators and institutions have the opportunity to provide quality learning experiences without the debilitating cost.
For far too long, brick-and-mortar colleges and universities have allowed costs to skyrocket unchecked, pouring money and resources into non-education-related services like fancy gyms and student unions to attract students. But if these institutions don’t find a way to cut costs, their opulent buildings may be empty.
It’s time for colleges to refocus on their main purpose — educating learners, and they must do so in a cost-effective manner that provides quality education for students without financially crippling them for life.
• Delegate Joshua Higginbotham served as the vice chair of the House Education Committee in the West Virginia House of Delegates. He represented the 13th district from 2016 to 2021.
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