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?