Changing Higher Ed Overcoming Barriers in Higher Ed: Strategies for Student Success and Employability
A new study on what campus leaders can do to help their graduates move into good jobs by age 30 found that the most effective ways for young adults to succeed in the workforce generally involve attaining post-secondary education degrees. The Georgetown Center for Education in the Workforce (CEW)’s “What Works: 10 Education, Training, and Work-Based Pathway Changes that Lead to Good Jobs” determines how much the likelihood of young adults getting a good job can be improved by some specific changes they make with a high school diploma, community college education, and/or university credits.
In this podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton talks with two CEW professors who worked on the study, Research Professor of Education and Economics Dr. Zack Mabel and Associate Director of Editorial Policy and Senior Editor/Writer Kathryn Campbell. They discuss how they conducted the study, the highlights, what the policy levers and interventions can be to help students make these top 10 pathway changes, some of the barriers campuses might face in achieving them, how higher ed can overcome these challenges, and some successful models.
Highlights
- The study focuses on scenarios where one change with no predeterminations is introduced and identifies if it improved a young adult’s likelihood of having a good job by age 30. For example, what would happen if a person who started in a four-year program completed their degree instead of stopping out before their mid-20s?
- The study defines a good job as one that pays a minimum of around $38,000 in 2020 for workers younger than age 35. The median pay is around $57,000 annually. Good jobs also provide health care and retirement benefits, etc.
- Many of the top 10 effective pathway changes involve attaining post-secondary education. Young adults who enroll before their mid-20s see a 16% point boost in their likelihood of having a good job by age 30. Those who enroll in an AA or certificate program get a 6% point boost. Those who complete an associate's degree or certification instead of stopping out experience an 8% point boost.
- For each pathway change, the study asks what policy levers and interventions higher ed institutions can introduce to make them a reality. Examples include expanding recruitment efforts and creating stronger partnerships between high schools and colleges. More outreach and advising can demystify college for students. Providing more financial aid and more information about financial aid can help prospective students make a true risk assessment.
- Most families are turned off by the tuition price. What an institution's published or sticker price is and what the net price or out-of-pocket cost students will have to pay can be misleading.
- Providing more generous financial aid targeted based on need and simple to apply for has a strong positive impact on increasing enrollment and persistence. For example, The Hill program at the University of Michigan makes students aware of how much financial aid they will receive when they're considering applying. This has increased the likelihood that students will apply to and enroll in the University of Michigan.
- Wraparound support programs and comprehensive student support programs like the CUNY ASAP program for the community colleges in New York City is a holistic program that works. The Dell Scholars Program at four-year institutions provides financial aid and individualized continuous advisement in real-time with a full-time staff member. Although expensive, countless studies have demonstrated that the impacts they have in terms of increasing persistence and graduation pay off.
- The college experience will not be linear for every student. Therefore, strengthen partnerships between two-year and four-year institutions, for example. Students who start off at a two-year institution will have a much easier means of making the leap to a four-year institution.
- Develop reverse transfer interventions and degree-reclamation policies where students who stopped out before obtaining a four-year degree can still get an associate’s degree if they completed enough credits. Colorado automatically grants associate's degrees to these students instead of waiting for them to apply or for a college administrator to make them aware of the opportunity.
- Build stronger and more effective college partnerships between institutions. Help students take advantage of the resources at another institution.
About Our Podcast Guests
Kathryn Peltier Campbell
Kathryn Peltier Campbell is associate director of editorial policy and senior editor/writer at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Kathryn has extensive experience writing, editing, and directing content development for publications focused on topics such as diversity and equity in postsecondary education and the workforce, higher education’s civic mission, and the value of education in contemporary contexts. Prior to joining CEW, she edited periodicals and reports at the American Association of Colleges and Universities, including the flagship periodical Liberal Education. Kathryn has an MA in English from the University of Virginia, where she also earned a BA with a double major in English and physics.
Dr. Zack Mabel
Zack Mabel is a research professor of education and economics at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, where he leads research projects that leverage insights from labor and behavioral economics to promote educational opportunity, equity, and economic mobility. His work is motivated by the goal of improving college and later life outcomes for members of historically marginalized groups to achieve a shared vision of economic prosperity in the United States. Prior to joining CEW, he worked most recently as a policy research scientist at the College Board. Zack earned his BA from Brandeis University, MPP from the University of Michigan, and EdD in Quantitative Policy Analysis of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
About the Host
Dr. Drumm McNaughton, the host of Changing Higher Ed®, is a consultant to higher ed institutions in the areas of governance, accreditation, strategy and change, and mergers. To learn more about his services and other thought leadership pieces, visit his firm’s website, https://changinghighered.com/.
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