I was reading Congressional testimony from Stephanie Riegg Cellini, a Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration, and of Economics at The George Washington University. Riegg Cellini is also a Faculty Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economics. Professor Cellini was testifying before the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development earlier this year on the need for transparency in the value of higher education.
She testified that the government must compel higher education institutions to demonstrate the value of their academic programs. Realistically, there’s no reason that the government – or anyone else, for that matter – should have to “compel” higher education institutions to demonstrate the value of their programs.
This is Sales 101. Educational institutions should be clamoring to put their outcomes information in front of prospective students. Applicants need to know some basic stuff: how many program graduates have jobs in their fields? Who hires the institution’s graduates? What is the average starting salary of a graduate from a particular program? How long, on average, does it take for a recent graduate to find a job in their field of study? What is the five-year salary for an alumnus? What is the average debt of a program graduate? Answers to these questions will tell prospective students what their return on investment would be. Those answers will allow prospective students to vote with their feet, so to speak.
These answers will either fill an institution’s classrooms, or they won’t. If an institution is so certain that its programs are worth the student’s time, effort, and money, then it should not have a problem publicly disclosing this information. And if an institution’s classrooms aren’t full after answering those questions honestly, then that institution has likely found its enrollment problems.
Higher education should want to publish outcomes data.
No one should have to force institutions to do these things. This is simply part of the sales process. Students and taxpayers alike have the right to expect these disclosures, especially when higher education institutions attempt to make the argument that public funding is insufficient to operate the institution.
Show us what we are paying for and the benefits students (and the public) can expect in return. And I’m not talking about the “economic impact” blather schools churn out every year. That kind of bloviating rides barely above the noise floor and offers no useful information. It’s about as useful as a note from Donald Trump’s doctor.
People who are attempting to make career decisions need real information about how much they can expect to spend, how much they can expect to earn, and whether they can get a job in their field. If an institution’s cost and employment data don’t compare well to its competitors, then the institution has a good idea of what it needs to repair.
It’s really not that hard.
Photo Credit: You As A Machine, via Flickr
