i have a higher education

From Associate to Doctorate: A Complete Guide to College Degree Levels

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Are you ready to discover your college program?

Considering a college degree? First, you’ll have to understand the types of degrees and college degree levels.

Different degrees prepare you for different career paths. For example, you can’t become a psychologist with just a bachelor’s degree — you’d need a master’s or doctorate in psychology. And you usually can’t become an engineer without at least a bachelor’s degree.

Typically, as your university degree level rises, your earning potential increases, and the unemployment rate decreases. That’s one more reason it’s important to understand the different types of degrees.

What Types of Degrees Are There in College?

There are many types of degrees you can earn in college. College degree levels can be broken down into two categories: undergraduate degrees and graduate degrees.

Here are the college degrees in order, from lowest ranking to highest:

• Associate degree (undergraduate)
• Bachelor’s degree (undergraduate)
• Master’s degree (graduate)
• Doctoral degree (graduate)

While a doctorate is the highest education level, some fields may stop at a master’s. The phrase “terminal degree” refers to the highest degree in a field.

A professional degree is a type of graduate degree — often a doctorate — that prepares you for a professional career in fields like law and medicine.

Popular Online Programs

Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.

Associate Degree

• Typical Program Length: 1-2 years
• Typical Number of Credits: 60

Most associate degrees prepare you to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation. These programs can be found at community and technical colleges and typically last 1-2 years.

An associate degree can also serve as the foundation for a bachelor’s program. You may even be able to transfer some of the credits you earned for your associate degree toward a four-year degree.

Some associate degrees require you to complete an internship or practicum in addition to taking classes. This is particularly common among healthcare and tech degrees.

To apply for an associate degree program , you’ll need a high school diploma or equivalent, like a GED certificate. Some schools may require you to submit standardized test scores, such as the ACT or the SAT, as well.

Featured Associate Programs

What can you do with an associate degree.

An associate degree prepares you for vocational, allied health, and support roles. For example, you can become a medical assistant , paralegal , or vet tech with an associate degree.

The highest-paying careers with an associate degree pay over $80,000 per year. See the table below for salary information on other popular associate degree jobs.

Source: BLS

Types of Associate Degrees

Colleges can offer three kinds of associate degrees:

• Associate of Arts (AA)
• Associate of Science (AS)
• Associate of Applied Science (AAS)

Arts, humanities, and creative fields typically offer an AA, whereas social sciences and natural sciences fields often award an AS. Many applied and vocational programs offer an AAS degree.

The type of degree matters if you’re planning to transfer into a bachelor’s program. Colleges normally offer fewer transfer credits for an AAS degree.

Popular Associate Degrees

• Business Administration
• Business Management
• Computer Science
• Criminal Justice
• Cybersecurity
• Early Childhood Education
• Graphic Design
• Healthcare Management
• Information Technology
• Medical Assisting
• Medical Billing and Coding
• Pre-Nursing
• Social Work

Bachelor’s Degree

• Typical Program Length: 4 years
• Typical Number of Credits: 120

A bachelor’s degree prepares you for many career paths. You’ll generally spend four years earning a bachelor’s degree at a college or university. You’ll take general education classes and courses in your major . You can also choose a minor.

Some colleges offer accelerated bachelor’s programs , which take less time — often 2-3 years. Degree-completion programs can also speed up the timeline by awarding you credit for previous college coursework.

You can earn your bachelor’s degree online as well. An online degree from an accredited college meets the same standards as that of an in-person degree.

You’ll need a high school diploma for admission and may also need to submit SAT or ACT scores.

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What can you do with a bachelor’s degree.

In diverse industries like business, tech, and education, a bachelor’s degree can prepare you for many entry-level careers. Some of the highest-paying jobs with a bachelor’s degree include roles in finance, management, and tech.

Graduates with a four-year degree can also benefit from high demand in many lucrative fields, like software development and engineering. The table below introduces some popular jobs with a bachelor’s degree.

Types of Bachelor’s Degrees

You can earn a bachelor’s degree in many fields. Some of the most common types of bachelor’s degrees you’ll see include:

• Bachelor of Arts (BA)
• Bachelor of Science (BS)
• Bachelor of Applied Arts (BAA)
• Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS)
• Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.)
• Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)
• Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)

The two most popular degrees are a BA and a BS. These degrees cover all arts and sciences majors and some education and engineering degrees.

Popular Bachelor’s Degrees

• Civil Engineering
• Communication
• Computer Programming
• Health Informatics
• Health Sciences
• Human Resources
• Mathematics
• Organizational Psychology
• Political Science
• Public Policy
• Supply Chain and Logistics

Master’s Degree

• Typical Program Length: 1-3 years
• Typical Number of Credits: 30

A master’s degree can help you gain specialized skills and qualify for higher-paying roles. As a graduate student, you’ll work closely with experts in your field to explore advanced topics.

While a master’s degree typically takes two years, some universities offer accelerated one-year master’s programs. You can also enroll in a bachelor’s-to-master’s program to earn both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in less time.

Most master’s programs require a minimum of 30 credits. Admission and graduation requirements vary depending on the program. For example, many arts and sciences master’s programs require GRE scores , while business programs typically require GMAT scores .

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What can you do with a master’s degree.

With a master’s degree, you can qualify for management-level careers and specialized roles in industries like healthcare, research, and social services. The highest-paying master’s degrees include MBAs and nurse practitioner degrees.

Learn more about the earning potential and demand for popular master’s degree jobs below.

Types of Master’s Degrees

Here are some of the most common types of master’s degrees you can earn:

• Master of Arts (MA)
• Master of Science (MS)
• Master of Business Administration (MBA)
• Master of Education (M.Ed.)
• Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
• Master of Laws (LL.M.)
• Master of Public Administration (MPA)
• Master of Public Health (MPH)
• Master of Public Policy (MPP)
• Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
• Master of Social Work (MSW)

An MA and an MS are among the most popular master’s degrees. Humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences fields typically award an MA or an MS. Other popular options include an MBA and an M.Ed.

Popular Master’s Degrees

• Creative Writing
• Data Science
• Engineering
• Healthcare Administration
• Library and Information Science
• Network Security
• Public Health
• Supply Chain Management

Doctoral Degrees

• Typical Program Length: 2-10 years
• Typical Number of Credits: Varies

A doctorate represents the highest degree you can get in academia. There are a few types of doctoral degrees you can get.

Professional doctorates train you for a professional career. For example, law school and med school are two common professional paths. A Ph.D., on the other hand — by far one of the most common types of doctorates — emphasizes theory and research.

In a doctoral program, you’ll take graduate-level seminars and courses, take comprehensive exams, conduct original research, and defend a dissertation in front of a faculty committee.

Most applied doctorates take 3-5 years, while a Ph.D. typically requires 4-6 years of coursework. In certain fields, you can earn your doctorate online.

Some doctoral programs require a master’s degree for admission, whereas others admit applicants with just a bachelor’s degree. You may need to submit standardized test scores depending on the program.

Featured Doctoral Programs

What can you do with a doctorate.

If you want to become a physician , professor , or lawyer, you’ll need a doctorate. In many fields, a doctorate translates into higher salaries. Lawyers, pharmacists , and physicists all report median salaries of over $125,000 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The following table shows the earning potential and demand for popular doctoral degree jobs.

Types of Doctoral Degrees

A doctorate is the highest education level, but there are still several types of doctoral degrees. Here are some of the most common you can get:

• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
• Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
• Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
• Doctor of Medicine (MD)
• Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
• Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.)
• Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.)
• Juris Doctor (JD)

A Ph.D. is the most popular doctorate. You can earn a Ph.D. in many arts and sciences fields. Other doctorates take their names from the career path associated with the degree.

Popular Doctoral Degrees

• Curriculum and Instruction
• Educational Administration
• Educational Leadership
• Human Services
• Legal Studies
• Organizational Leadership
• Public Administration

Frequently Asked Questions About College Degree Levels

What are the four types of college degrees.

The four types of college degrees are associate degrees, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and doctoral degrees. Colleges classify associate and bachelor’s degrees as undergraduate degrees and master’s and doctoral degrees as graduate degrees.

Within those categories, you can earn many types of degrees. For instance, at the bachelor’s level, you could earn a bachelor of arts (BA), a bachelor of science (BS), or a bachelor of fine arts (BFA) degree.

What is a four-year college degree called?

A four-year college degree is called a bachelor’s degree. Another term for this degree type is a baccalaureate degree.

Many careers require a bachelor’s degree for entry-level roles. For example, most careers in business require you to hold a bachelor’s degree. Many roles in tech, education, the public sector, and engineering also require you to have a four-year degree.

Some career paths require a specific major. In many states, you’ll need a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) to become a registered nurse . In other fields, your specific major matters less than the quality of your skills.

What is the highest degree?

The highest degree is a doctorate, also called a doctoral degree. In terms of university degree levels, both master’s and bachelor’s degrees rank below doctorates.

You can earn a doctorate in a wide array of fields, including the social sciences, business, the humanities, education, engineering, and healthcare.

In some fields, however, a master’s degree represents the terminal, or highest, degree. For instance, a master of fine arts (MFA) is the terminal degree for creative writing.

What is the hardest college degree?

Most would agree that the hardest college degree is a doctorate. As the highest education level, a doctorate requires significant expertise in the field.

Many Ph.D. programs take six years or more and require you to write a book-length dissertation based on original research.

Because a doctorate represents the top of the university degree levels, it’s a relatively uncommon degree. Only around 2% of U.S. adults held a doctorate in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau .

What is the quickest degree?

The fastest degree you can get is either a one-year associate degree or a one-year master’s degree. While other types of degrees typically take a minimum of two years, you can earn a master’s degree in one year with an accelerated or fast-track program.

You can sometimes add a master’s degree to your bachelor’s through a 4+1 program, also known as a bachelor’s-to-master’s program. In this case, some of your coursework counts toward both your undergraduate and graduate degrees, meaning you’ll spend an additional year in college to leave with a master’s degree.

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The system of higher education in the United States

The system of higher education in russia, contemporary issues.

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The system of higher education in the United States differs from its counterparts in Europe in certain ways. In the United States, there is a nationwide assumption that students who have completed secondary school should have at least two years of university education . Hence, a great number of “ junior colleges ” and “community colleges” have sprung up to provide two years of undergraduate study, in contrast to the traditional universities and colleges, where a majority of students complete four years of study for a degree and where substantial numbers go on for one to three years of postgraduate study in a “graduate school.” Universities that provide four-year study courses are either privately funded foundations or are state or city foundations that depend heavily on the government for financial support. Private universities and colleges depend largely on tuition charges levied on students. The individual state governments fund the nation’s highly developed system of state universities, which ensure the provision of higher education for the vast majority of those willing and academically qualified to receive such education.

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In the American system, the four-year, or “ bachelor’s ,” degree is ordinarily obtained not by passing a “finals” examination but rather by the accumulation of course “credits,” or hours of classroom study. The quality of work done in these courses is assessed by means of a continuous record of marks and grades in a course transcript. The completion of a certain number (and variety) of courses with passing grades leads to the “bachelor’s” degree. The first two years of a student’s studies are generally taken up with prescribed courses in a broad range of subject areas, along with some “elective” courses selected by the student. In the third and fourth years of study, the student specializes in one or perhaps two subject fields. Postgraduate students can pursue either advanced studies or research in one of the many graduate schools, which are usually specialized institutions. At these schools students work toward either a “ master’s ” degree (which involves one to two years of postgraduate study) or a doctoral degree (which involves two to four years of study and other requirements).

A marked feature of American education that derives from the German model is the de-emphasis on lecture and examination. In both of these countries, students are evaluated according to their performance in individual courses where discussion and written essays figure importantly. The American model of higher learning was adopted wholesale by the Philippines and influenced the educational systems of Japan and Taiwan after World War II .

Higher education in Russia is characterized by direct state administration and until 1990/91 was essentially controlled by the Communist Party . The schools of higher learning are divided into universities, where humanities and pure sciences are taught; institutes, where single fields are taught ( e.g., law , medicine , and agriculture); and polytechnical institutes, where subjects similar to those in the institutes are taught but with a broader scientific foundation. Another distinction of the Russian system is that it greatly extends the educational network by offering a broad array of carefully prepared correspondence courses. These courses are supplemented by radio and television broadcasts and are further augmented by regional study centres. Many students are thus able to proceed part-time with their education while holding full- or part-time jobs. Students are admitted to higher-educational institutions on the basis of competitive examinations. The duration of studies for a first degree ranges from four to six years, with five years being the average. The curriculum consists of compulsory, alternative , and optional subjects. Candidates for a degree must take examinations in two or three basic disciplines related to a chosen specialty. At the conclusion of a first-degree course, all students receive the same diploma, but students with the best results are awarded a “distinction.” Most institutions organize graduate schools for postgraduate studies, which are likewise concluded by a set of examinations.

Educational systems outside of the Western Hemisphere have long followed the lead of the most influential countries, although not always to their advantage. The major problem is that many developing countries have a much greater need for technical institutes rather than for academic universities, so that they can produce professionals and scientists able to address their particular problems. In these countries, language is often a problem because much of the technology developed in the West requires a vocabulary that many languages do not have. Reading skills in English are widely cultivated for these purposes.

Modern trends in higher education indicate a willingness worldwide to learn from the strengths of the various systems. Schools in North America frequently suffer from a lack of the uniformity of educational standards that European systems provide through centralized bureaucratic control. Coordinated national accrediting organizations solve much of this problem. European universities have moved toward greater autonomy in curriculum development, and steps have been taken so that broader segments of the population can benefit from higher education.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, how can i effectively express my motivation for higher education in my college essay.

I need to start working on my college essay and I'm seriously pondering over how to convey my true motivation for wanting a college education. It’s more than just getting a degree for me. How do I put this passion into words without sounding cliché?

I completely understand your desire to express your genuine passion for higher education in a way that stands out. It's important to show the admissions committee what drives you, and how your experiences have shaped your decision to pursue college education. To avoid clichés, focus on specific experiences or moments in your life that ignited your enthusiasm for learning. For example, you could write about a project or subject that you explored on your own time and how that deepened your interest in a certain field.

Additionally, you could talk about mentors or role models who have influenced your academic journey, or how particular challenges have strengthened your commitment to further education. Remember to be reflective and introspective; focus on your personal growth and development. It's not about grand statements, but about showing how your unique story connects to your educational aspirations. Tie these experiences back to your motivation for seeking a higher education, highlighting how college is a necessary and meaningful next step for you. By doing so, you'll be able to craft an essay that is both compelling and personal, clearly demonstrating your passion to the admissions committee.

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

Harvard Bok Higher Education Teaching Certificate

Create a collaborative learning environment.

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The Higher Education Teaching Certificate, inspired by the in-person seminar program currently offered by Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, provides you with effective postsecondary education teaching methods. Over eight weeks, you’ll engage deeply with, and reflect on, your practices, portfolio, and journey in the higher education field. Guided by experts, you’ll explore various approaches to pedagogy, discover the most relevant research on how students learn, and broaden your range of teaching skills. Learn how to adopt a more conscious, collaborative, and refined approach to your teaching practice. 

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Director of Professional Development, The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University Read full bio.

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Postdoctoral Research Associate at Harvard Business School Read full bio. 

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What’s the Value of Higher Education?

Have political and fiscal debates about higher education lost sight of the value of education for individuals and society? Dr. Johnnetta Cole discusses how universities can inform and inspire.

• Dr. Johnnetta Cole President Emerita, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art; President Emerita, Spelman College and Bennett College

This interview was conducted at the Yale Higher Education Leadership Summit , hosted by Yale SOM’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute on January 30, 2018.

The value of a college degree can be measured in a number of different ways: increased lifetime earnings potential, a network of classmates and fellow alumni, subject-matter expertise, a signal of stick-to-itiveness, potentially a marker of class or the capacity to move across classes. There are also less tangible benefits, like becoming a more well-rounded individual and part of a well-informed public.

Yale Insights recently talked with Dr. Johnnetta Cole about how she measures the value of higher education. Cole is the former president of Spelman College and Bennett College, the only two historically black colleges and universities that are exclusively women’s colleges. After retiring from academia, she served as the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. In addition, she served on the boards of a number of corporations, including Home Depot, Merck, and Coca-Cola. She was the first African-American chair of the board for the United Way of America.

Q: Why does higher education matter?

I would say that we could get widespread agreement on what I’m going to call the first purpose of higher education: through this amazingly powerful process of teaching and learning, students come to better understand the world.

There might be some disagreement on the second purpose. I’d say it is to inspire students to figure out how they can contribute to helping to make the world better. Certainly, higher education is about scholarship, but it’s also about service. It’s about creativity. It’s about matters of the mind, but it’s also, or at least it should be, about matters of the heart and the soul.

Q: Has the public perception of universities changed in recent years?

Throughout the history—and herstory—of higher education, there have been doubters, those who have critiqued it. But I have a concern, and some polls tell us, in this period in which we are living, many people believe that higher education is not contributing in a positive way to American life.

That’s something that we need to work on, those of us who are deeply engaged in and care about higher education, because I think when one looks with as much objectivity as possible, the truth is, and it’s always been, that higher education contributes substantially.

Q: You’ve led two historically black colleges for women. What is the role of special mission institutions?

In my view, we still need special mission institutions. Remember Brandeis, Notre Dame, and Brigham Young are special mission institutions.

With respect to historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), not every African American wants to or does go to an HBCU. The same is true of women and women’s colleges. But for those who wish that kind of education, and if the fit is right, it’s almost magical.

I think it is as basic as having an entire community believe that you can. On these campuses, we believe that black students can do whatever they set their minds to do. On the women’s campuses, we believe that women can reach heights that have not been imagined for women.

HBCUs are not totally free of racism. Women’s colleges are not utopias where there are no expressions of gender inequality or sexism. But they come far closer than at our predominately white and co-ed institutions.

Q: One of the big issues with higher education now is cost. How do we solve the affordability problem?

The affordability question is highly complex and serious. James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed that is not faced.” I believe that this is a perfect example. Colleges and universities are not just raising tuitions so they can make big profits. Pell grants are no longer at least a reasonable response to the affordability question.

We’ve got to figure this out because, in a democracy, accessibility to education is fundamental. The idea that something as precious, as powerful, as a solid education is only accessible to some and not to others, is an assault upon democracy.

Q: You came out of retirement to lead the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Why was the draw so strong?

I’ve managed, systematically, to get a failing grade in retirement.

I grew up in the South, in the days of legalized segregation—you could also call it state-sponsored racism. I didn’t have access to symphony halls. I didn’t have access to art museums. I still remember the library that I went to in order to travel the world through books, was the A. L. Lewis Colored Public Library.

As a young girl, I fell in love with the visual arts, especially African and African-American art. I went off to Fisk University at age 15 and began to see the real works of art for which we only had reproductions in my home. From Fisk, I went to Oberlin, where the Allen Memorial Art Gallery was a special place of solace for me

The opportunity with the Smithsonian wasn’t something I sought; I was asked to apply. My doctorate is in anthropology, not art history, so I was reluctant, but they told me they were looking for a leader, not an art historian. It was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. The work was an almost indescribable joy.

Generally, our museums across America do not reflect who America is, nor do they reflect how our world looks. They need to be far more diverse in terms of their boards, staff, exhibitions, educational programs, and visitorship.

What the African art museum has is a unique opportunity because it can speak to something that binds us together. If one is human, just go back far enough, I mean way back, and we have all come from a single place. It is called Africa.

Here’s a museum that says to its visitors, “No matter who you are, by race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability or disability, or nationality, come to a place where the visual arts connect you to the very cradle of humanity.”

During those eight years when I had the joy of being the director of the National Museum of African Art, I would greet our visitors by saying “Welcome home! Welcome to a place that presents the diverse and dynamic, the exquisite arts of Africa, humanity’s original home.”

Q: Do you think that our education and cultural institutions are properly valued in our society?

I have to say no. Because if we did, we would take better care of them. If we did, we would make sure that not some but all of our educational institutions from kindergarten through post-secondary education, into graduate and professional schools, have the means to do what needs to be done.

If we really value all of our cultural expressions, whether it’s dance or music, visual arts, theater, when there is a budget shortfall, we wouldn’t say, “These are the first things to go.” We wouldn’t say, “Kids can do without music in their public school.” It’s one thing to say we love an institution; it’s another to care for and protect an institution. I think we can do far better.

What Is the Purpose and Future of Higher Education?

A sociologist explores the history and future of higher education..

Posted February 18, 2019 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

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A recent story asked, “ Can small liberal arts colleges survive the next decade? ” This question is important as we see the closure of some small schools, mostly in areas away from big cities. Yet, as University of California Riverside sociology and public policy distinguished professor Steven G. Brint notes based on his new book Two Cheers for Higher Education , “There’s always been a small number of colleges that close every year—usually fewer than a dozen—and more are opened for the first time than closed.” This illustrates, among other things, why it is important to consider a historical perspective on higher education to place recent individual news stories in context. That’s exactly what his latest book does: It explores the rich history of higher education, leading him to argue that overall higher education appears to be doing quite well, but also that there remain important concerns for higher education on the horizon.

I asked Steven questions about the purpose of higher education, why he argues higher education is doing quite well, and what his concerns are for its future. Anyone interested in the rich history of higher education and how that informs the future of higher education should read this book. Going to college or university is increasingly a fixture and perhaps even an obsession for parents and students, and understanding the history of that industry is useful to help us think about why we encourage students to go to college in the first place.

What, in your view, is the purpose of higher education?

The aims of higher education change over time. In the United States, the original purposes were to prepare students for a few “learned professions,” especially the clergy, and to provide a strong, religiously tinged moral education. Many of the activities that we now associate with higher education—extra-curricular clubs, majoring in a defined specialization, faculty research, access for socioeconomically disadvantaged students—came later.

Today, we would have to start by recognizing the fundamental fact that the purposes of higher education are highly differentiated by the stratum in the system institutions occupy. The aims of community colleges are very different from those of research universities. I do not talk about community colleges in the book, though I did write a book on community colleges early in my career . The great majority of the 3,000 or so four-year colleges and universities are primarily devoted to teaching students, mainly in occupational fields that in theory equip graduates to obtain jobs. Students will receive a smattering of general education in lower-division and will have opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities. The latter are more important for many students than classroom studies. Students hone interpersonal skills on campus, make contacts that can be useful for instrumental purposes as well as ends in themselves. For those who finish, their diplomas do provide a boost in the labor market, more for quantitative fields than for other fields.

Research universities are of course the most complex environments and the range of their activities is difficult to catalog in a short answer. In addition to providing instruction in hundreds of programs, they run hundreds of student clubs and organizations, contribute to the selection of high achieving students for graduate degrees, train and mentor graduate and professional students, produce thousands or tens of thousands of research papers annually, reach out to industrial partners, field semi-professional athletic teams, solve community problems, run tertiary care hospitals, patent new discoveries and attempt to create environments conducive to learning for a very wide variety of students. One could say that these activities, taken together, constitute the enacted purposes of research universities.

However, when you look at their activities from the perspective of public policy, the focus will tend to be on three main purposes: (1) human capital development (in other words, improving the cognitive and non-cognitive skills of students), (2) basic research and research in the national interest, and (3) the provision of access for students from lower-income and under-represented minority backgrounds. Implicitly, Two Cheers for Higher Education focuses more on these primary aims of public policy than on some of the ancillary activities of universities. Of course, some of the activities that could be considered ancillary—such as student clubs and the patenting of new discoveries—are clearly related to these public policy aims. For that reason, I do also discuss them at some length in the book.

At a time when we see stories of colleges closing, why is it that you argue that higher education is doing quite well?

We do see some colleges closing and more colleges merging. There’s always been a small number of colleges that close every year—usually fewer than a dozen—and more are opened for the first time than closed. We do hear a lot of talk about mergers in recent years, and some of the regional public universities in rural areas are definitely struggling. Where population is declining steadily, it becomes harder to make the case for the local college. But population is not declining in urban areas or in suburban areas around big cities. Here we see new colleges rising or existing colleges growing larger. Higher education is doing quite well in the parts of the country that are seeing growth in population and wealth. Sometimes higher education has been an important influence in attracting employers, new jobs, and new wealth. The state of Georgia is an interesting example. It now has the 10th largest economy of the 50 states, and the investments that state leaders and donors have made in Georgia Tech, Emory, the University of Georgia, and Georgia State University have played an important role in the state’s impressive development.

Though your book is largely positive about higher education, you note some concerns about the future of higher education. What are those?

According to public opinion surveys, the major concerns of Americans have to do with cost, the quality of undergraduate education, and liberal bias in the classroom. I address each of these issues in the book. One hopes that criminal justice reform may allow most of the 50 states to invest more heavily in higher education, reducing family’s burdens. I also advocate a universal, income-contingent loan repayment policy similar to the ones that already exist in England, Australia and several other countries. My research has led me to agree with the critics that the quality of undergraduate education is too low for too many. I show in the book how the lessons of the sciences of learning can be embedded without much more than forethought in even large lecture classes. The evidence on liberal bias is mixed. Clearly, minorities remain subject to many discriminatory and wounding acts on college campuses. At the same time, where we find a liberal orthodoxy there’s a risk that assumptions and commitments will substitute for evidence and reasoning. We do need more spaces on campus where contemporary social and political issues can be discussed and debated.

I also discuss what academic and political leaders can do about the threat to the physical campus represented by online competition , by the tremendous growth of campus administrative staff (compared to the slow growth of faculty), and the deplorable increase in poorly-paid and sometimes poorly-prepared adjunct instructors.

I hope that the evidence and recommendations that I provide will stimulate new thinking and action in each of these areas of concern. The U.S. is fortunate to have the strongest system of higher education in the world, but many problems arose during the period I cover. It will be important to address these problems before they undermine public support for institutions that are now central to the country’s future well-being.

Brint, S. G. (2018). Two cheers for higher education: Why American universities are stronger than ever--and how to meet the challenges they face . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Jonathan Wai, Ph.D. , is Assistant Professor of Education Policy and Psychology and the 21st Century Endowed Chair in Education Policy at the University of Arkansas.

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Reimagining higher education in the United States

Higher education in the United States is at an inflection point. The core mission of the university—instruction, research, and service—has not changed. Nor has the need for advanced education to prepare individuals for a fulfilling life and to drive the knowledge economy. For individuals, the economic benefit of earning a college degree remains clear. College graduates are on average wealthier, healthier, and happier over a lifetime. 1 William R. Emmons, Ana H. Kent, and Lowell R. Ricketts, “Is college still worth it? The new calculus of falling returns,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, 2019, Volume 101, Number 4, pp. 297–329, stlouisfed.org.

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, however, the higher-education sector faced significant challenges. Consider student completion: only 60 percent of all those who started college actually earned a degree within six years in 2017 (the latest year for which data is available). The figures are even worse for Black (39.9 percent) and Hispanic (54.4 percent) students. Other troubling disparities persist. In student enrollment, for example, 69 percent of white high-school graduates enroll in college, compared with 59 percent of Black high-schoolers and 61 percent of Hispanics. Furthermore, the level of student debt is rising, while repayment rates plummet, creating a potentially unsustainable burden for many students.

The pandemic is intensifying these challenges and creating new ones. Students and their families are struggling with the impact of campus shutdowns and questioning whether it is worth it to pay for an on-campus experience when much of the instruction is being done remotely. Under these circumstances, the risk of outcome inequities—from completion to employment to lifetime earnings—could worsen. For example, evidence suggests that lower-income students are 55 percent more likely than their higher-income peers to delay graduation 2 Esteban Aucejo et al.,“The impact of COVID-19 on student experiences and expectations: Evidence from a survey,” Journal of Public Economics , August 2020, sciencedirect.com. due to the COVID-19 crisis. Underpinning all of these challenges is a business model at its breaking point, as institutions face falling revenues and rising health-and-safety costs.

In short, the coronavirus has confirmed the case for fast and fundamental change. It has also demonstrated that change is possible. When the pandemic hit, many US colleges and universities moved quickly to remote learning and other delivery models, launched affordability initiatives, and found creative ways to support their students. Now is the time to build on these lessons to reimagine the next five to ten years and beyond.

With that in mind, we pose five questions for US higher-education leaders to address as they look to the future. For each question, we describe the current conventional wisdom and then make the case for challenging it—to the benefit of students, faculty, staff, institutions, and society.

What makes our university distinctive?

The conventional wisdom: To successfully attract students and maintain competitive national rankings, colleges and universities must be well rounded.

National-ranking systems emphasize admissions selectivity, small class sizes, per-student spending, and standardized test scores. Focusing on this narrow set of variables can incentivize institutions to make strategic and operational choices that may boost their rankings without necessarily improving their core educational missions. It may also lead to greater homogenization in the higher-education landscape.

Instead, there may be more benefit to creating thoughtful differentiation, building on the institution’s existing strengths, resources, and local context. The question to ask is: “What should my institution be known for?” There are many ways to differentiate, including student mix and outcomes, faculty development, research capabilities, facilities, and community impact. Doing so may serve institutions and their students better than the conventional wisdom for three reasons.

First, identifying and prioritizing what makes an institution distinctive can be a competitive advantage that attracts committed students and faculty. Second, specializing—doing fewer things better—could improve outcomes. And third, creating a distinctive profile can be a source of resilience, enabling institutions to survive after a crisis.

Such differentiation will be critical given the trends that are challenging the higher-education sector. One trend is the coming “demographic cliff”—the number of high-school graduates in the United States will peak at around 3.6 million students in 2026 and then decline to 3.3 million students by 2030. Another is the drop, since 2016, in international-student enrollment, an important source of revenues for many colleges. The COVID-19 crisis could well accelerate this decline. A third trend is the competition for research funding. In terms of the percentage of GDP and of budget allocation, federal investment in R&D has fallen steadily since the 1960s (although it has risen in absolute terms, and in the past two decades, nonfederal investment has grown, too). Moreover, about 35 percent of federal funding went to just 22 schools in 2018. Given these constraints, leaders need to ask how research can serve their institutions and identify where they stand the best chance of attracting faculty and funding.

By defining their areas of distinction and then directing resources to support them, higher-education institutions can set themselves apart—making them stronger and enabling them to deliver high-quality programs and outcomes.

How can we build a diverse and inclusive institution?

The conventional wisdom: Current efforts are likely to fulfill diversity and inclusion (D&I) goals in a reasonable time frame.

Higher-education institutions have been at the forefront of recognizing, and taking steps to foster, D&I. Many feature chief diversity officers, D&I curriculum requirements, and training sessions on implicit bias, as part of the growing diversity infrastructure. Even so, there are sizeable gaps. College enrollment and completion rates for Black and Hispanic students are much lower than for their white or Asian counterparts. Another area to address is the student experience itself. According to a 2019 study, Black, Hispanic, and first-generation students report a lower sense of belonging at four-year schools (but not at two-year schools). 3 Shannon T. Brady et al., “College students’ sense of belonging: A national perspective,” Educational Researcher , 2020, Volume 49, Number 2, pp. 134–37, sagepub.com.

Faculty composition is even less representative. In 2017, only 6 percent of full-time faculty in degree-granting postsecondary institutions were Black and 6 percent were Hispanic, compared with 14 percent and 18 percent of the US population, respectively. Women make up only 33 percent of full-time professors.

Doing more of the same, then, is not enough, and time is of the essence because of changing student demographics. Between the 2012–13 and the 2031–32 academic years, the proportion of high-school graduates who identify as Asian and Hispanic will grow to 31 percent, from 24 percent, of all students.

There is evidence from the business sector that prioritizing D&I as a core value is sound management. McKinsey research has consistently found that  businesses with top-quartile diversity on executive teams were likelier to have superior results; in the latest results from the 2019 study, companies with top-quartile ethnic and gender diversity were 36 percent and 25 percent, respectively, more likely to have above-average profitability. While the analogy between executive teams and higher education administrations is not precise, it is likely that campuses, like the C-suite, would benefit from a more diverse leadership composition.

Current higher-education D&I efforts are necessary yet insufficient, particularly given how the COVID-19 crisis is disproportionately impacting the lives, livelihoods, and education of Black and Hispanic Americans. Leaders must, therefore, act with a sense of urgency, seeking opportunities to strengthen D&I across their institutions—from redesigning student recruitment to updating faculty-performance measurement to account for the significant roles that under-represented faculty often play in mentoring to the social and academic experiences to postgraduate success. To do so may require new strategic initiatives and accountability measures, such as sharing the breakdown of tenure appointments by ethnicity and creating programs to encourage opportunities for intergroup dialogue and promote cross-race understanding. 4 This constitutes McKinsey’s view on best practices and optimized environments. Legal restrictions, however, could affect universities’ ability to adopt them; they should consult their legal counsel to understand any implications created by the recent “Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping,” September 22, 2020, whitehouse.gov.

What services are necessary to create a high-quality student experience? And what aren’t?

The conventional wisdom: In addition to learning, higher-education institutions must be responsive to a wide range of student wants and needs.

The core mission of colleges and universities is instruction, research, and service. In recent decades, though, many have engaged in the so-called student-amenities arms race, with expansive offerings in areas such as entertainment, gourmet dining, and wellness. Higher-education institutions want to deliver an enjoyable experience, and of course some student services are essential, especially those related to physical and mental health. But it is notable that since at least 2010, the costs for student services have risen much faster than costs for instruction and research (Exhibit 1). While this spending does include some core services, this trend may no longer be sustainable for many institutions.

Spending on student services has been growing four times as fast as spending on instruction.

Chart summary.

Although more than half of total spending at four-year universities was invested in research and instruction, growth over ten years since 2007 showed 0.3% less was spent on research and only 0.5% more on instruction. Meanwhile, 8.5% of the total was invested in student services 4 , the largest area of growth in spending per student (2.1%) over ten years.

1 Adjusted for inflation.

2 Includes expenses for the day-to-day operational support of the institution. Includes expenses for general administrative services, central executive-level activities concerned with management and long-range planning, legal and fiscal operations, space management, employee personnel and records, logistical services such as purchasing and printing, and public relations and development.

3 Includes expenses for activities and services that support the institution's primary missions of instruction, research, and public service.

4 Includes expenses for admissions, registrar activities, and activities whose primary purpose is to contribute to students' emotional and physical well-being and to their intellectual, cultural, and social development outside the context of the formal instructional program. Examples include student activities, cultural events, student newspapers, intramural athletics, student organizations, supplemental instruction outside the normal administration, and student records.

Source: College Scorecard; Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (CPI); National Center for Education Statistics Trend Generator

McKinsey & Company

One of the most difficult things to do on a college campus is to stop doing something. That said, some institutions have shown how to make such tradeoffs. Spelman College, for example, announced in 2012 that it would drop competitive intercollegiate sports in favor of expanding campus-wide health and fitness programs. This exact tradeoff is being faced again, and some institutions are making the difficult choice to trim athletics; most notably, in July 2020, Stanford announced it will permanently cut 11 athletics programs.

While students surely appreciate things like luxury gyms and other services, there is a need to distinguish between what students like and what is necessary to serve the core education mission. Given the budget stresses of the COVID-19 crisis, higher-education institutions may want to consider providing fewer, better ancillary services, while keeping the broader well being of their students in mind.

What delivery channels and models should we use to fulfill our core educational mission?

The conventional wisdom: The best college experiences and educational outcomes are delivered in person, on a residential campus.

The quad, the ivy, the lecture hall, the dorm, the tailgate parties: these are some of the well-known totems of the quintessential college experience. These images are ingrained; they are also part of the reason why many (and maybe most) traditional four-year, higher-education institutions were slow to adopt new methods and technologies, such as remote instruction and competency-based learning that have the potential to advance student success while also lowering costs.

Global private investment in learning-technology companies has been growing fast, from $2 billion in 2012 to $19 billion in 2019. Areas such as online-learning management systems and innovations such as virtual-lab applications and immersive story learning are beginning to spread. And the COVID-19 crisis hustled even reluctant students and institutions into action. In 2018, only about 35 percent of undergraduates took a distance-education course. This year, that figure is close to 100 percent, as the pandemic forced the adoption of remote learning.

In 2018, only about 35 percent of undergraduates took a distance-education course. This year, that figure is close to 100 percent.

Institutional acceptance of the online delivery model also may be increasing. According to a poll of 2,000 US faculty members by Inside Higher Ed and Gallup in October 2019 5 Doug Lederman, “Professors’ slow, steady acceptance of online learning: A survey,” Inside Higher Education, October 30, 2019, insidehighered.com. —that is, well before the COVID-19 crisis—39 percent fully supported the increased use of education technologies, up from 29 percent in 2017. And a national survey of more than 4,000 faculty members earlier this year 6 “Time for class: COVID-19 edition,” Tyton Partners, July 2020, everylearnereverywhere.org. found that 45 percent had a better opinion of remote learning since the pandemic began; fewer than one in five (17 percent) had a more negative perception.

Remote and online learning are here to stay. The need is to determine what combination of remote and in-person learning delivers the highest educational quality and equity. As institutions refine this hybrid model, they have a once-in-a-generation chance to reconfigure their use of physical and virtual space. They may be able to reduce the number of large lecture halls, for example, and convert them into flexible working pods or performance spaces. Or they could reimagine the academic calendar, offering instruction into the summer months.

What is our business model?

The conventional wisdom: The current higher-education business model, which relies heavily on ongoing tuition increases, can be sustained.

For decades, the financial model of US colleges and universities rested on two revenue streams. Student tuition and fees were the most important; the rest came from a mix of different sources, such as athletics, research grants, endowments, and government appropriations, that varied greatly. Both revenue streams are now under stress. These unprecedented times require a reimagined business model that protects the core educational mission and financial viability of the institution, while limiting economic burdens on students.

As mentioned, athletics, research grants, and other revenue sources are sputtering in the pandemic. But the bigger stress is on tuition and fees, which comprise at least half of revenues for about 55 percent of four-year private nonprofit institutions in the United States; meanwhile they account for more than a third of revenues for about 30 percent of public institutions. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, administrators realized that they had limited scope to increase tuition; now it has become even more difficult to do so.

Two issues threaten the traditional tuition-reliant financial model. First, there is affordability. To offer financial aid, institutions manage a complicated pricing system in which higher-income and international students effectively subsidize needier ones. This lack of price transparency feeds into the perception of the increasing costs—and unaffordability—of college. In fact, from 2007–17, net costs rose only 4 percent , reversing the trend of previous decades. Yet the perception of unaffordability means that some young people might be discouraged from trying to attend: they see the high sticker prices and assume that they are priced out.

Second, there are also questions around the value of higher education when debt levels and repayment rates are considered. Median student debt levels have climbed by 45 percent since 2006, while repayment rates have dropped by 24 percent since 2009 (Exhibit 2). The situation appears to be worsening; in 2016, only 6 percent of students  were at colleges where students left with moderate debt and managed high repayment rates, compared with 54 percent in 2009. The situation is even worse for students who incur debt but don’t graduate and, therefore, don’t benefit from the income-raising advantage of a degree.

The COVID-19 crisis could accelerate these trends. In our April 2020 student survey , 45 percent of prospective students cited cost as extremely important in selecting a college, 44 percent of students who switched schools between January and April did so to save money, and 30 percent reported that the COVID-19 crisis was likely to have a strong or extremely strong impact on their ability to afford college.

Another important factor is to ensure students realize an economic return on their investment in higher education; without that assurance, young people will not be willing to enroll in the first place, or finish. Colleges are under pressure to ensure that students don’t just graduate with a degree, but with a pathway to sustainable employment that secures a reasonable standard of living.

Given these financial constraints, it is not surprising to see consolidation. Since 2000, there have been about 100 higher-education mergers in the United States, 7 John Hanc, “For some colleges, the best move is to merge,” October 10, 2019, New York Times , nytimes.com. and more are likely. The Pennsylvania State University system, 8 Jan Murphy, “Pa. state system of higher education exploring costs of combining some universities,” July 16, 2020, Patriot-News , pennlive.com. for example, is considering restructuring the different institutions in the system. Properties, buildings, and talent from less-affluent campuses may well become available. An interesting example comes from Connecticut, where three schools are buying the assets of the University of Bridgeport 9 Goldie Blumenstyk, “The edge: As colleges’ finances get shakier, what lessons does this ‘sorta’ merger offer?”, July 8, 2020, Chronicle of Higher Education , chronicle.com. ; the latter’s academic programs will continue for the time being, while other operations, such as the library and security, are shared.

The opportunity—indeed, the necessity—is to reimagine higher education financials so that students do not find themselves mired in debt. There is little room to increase tuition, and there are also challenges to other revenue sources, such as athletics and research funding; education leaders must therefore ask how they can reevaluate their spending and/or reallocate existing resources.

Colleges and universities must reimagine their business models and consider new ways to operate—either on a standalone basis or through partnerships that accomplish the same goals, at lower cost.

How do we challenge the conventional wisdom?

Higher-education leaders face a complex situation, negotiating how to manage the COVID-19 crisis in a context of economic, demographic, and technological challenges. At the same time, universities have a reputation for making decisions slowly. “It’s easier to change the course of history,” the saying goes, “than it is to change the history course.” The deliberate, and deliberative, nature of university governance has many benefits, but it can also be a hindrance to decisive action. That said, many university leaders have reacted creatively and swiftly to meet the challenge of protecting their communities’ health while delivering on their educational mission.

Three mechanisms can help universities to sustain this momentum: planning, stakeholder engagement, and board governance:

• Plan ahead. Responding to a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic requires leaders to take decisive short-term actions. But they also need to dedicate time to develop longer-term strategic thinking. One way to do so is to create plan-ahead teams  that include people identified as future leaders. The team should be tasked with developing scenarios, recommending actions, and identifying trigger points for escalation to the university’s board and administrative leadership.
• Stakeholder engagement. Universities should engage early and often with important stakeholder groups—including faculty, staff, students, and parents—when making critical strategic decisions. Leaders must be transparent about decision-making processes, establish clear timelines, and meet them. By embedding engagement into decision making, rather than as an afterthought, the shared governance culture of higher education can be respected, while still allowing universities to act quickly.
• Board governance. In moments of crisis, boards can play a critical role. But that role must not slip into micro-management. Board members should evaluate their operating model—the board’s size, structure, and decision rights—to ensure they provide the necessary governance without interfering with administrators.

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that universities will need to adapt. “The inertia of a massive university is formidable,” noted Harvard President Charles W. Eliot in his inaugural address. “A good past is positively dangerous, if it makes us content with the present, and so unprepared for the future.”

President Eliot made those remarks in 1869. The time to prepare for a new future is now.

André Dua is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Miami office; Jonathan Law  is a senior partner in the New York office; Ted Rounsaville is a senior expert in the Washington, DC, office; and Nadia Viswanath is a consultant in the San Francisco office.

The authors wish to thank Arthur Bianchi and Kathleen Zhu for their contributions to this article, as well as the hundreds of university leaders who shared their experiences and perspectives with us.

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The Growing Partisan Divide in Views of Higher Education

Americans see value in higher education – whether they graduated from college or not. Most say a college degree is important, if not essential, in helping a young person succeed in the world, and college graduates themselves say their degree helped them grow and develop the skills they needed for the workplace. While fewer than half of today’s young adults are enrolled in a two-year or four-year college, the share has risen steadily over the past several decades. And the economic advantages college graduates have over those without a degree are clear and growing.

Even so, there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction – even suspicion – among the public about the role colleges play in society, the way admissions decisions are made and the extent to which free speech is constrained on college campuses. And these views are increasingly linked to partisanship.

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that only half of American adults think colleges and universities are having a positive effect on the way things are going in the country these days. About four-in-ten (38%) say they are having a negative impact – up from 26% in 2012.

The share of Americans saying colleges and universities have a negative effect has increased by 12 percentage points since 2012. The increase in negative views has come almost entirely from Republicans and independents who lean Republican. From 2015 to 2019, the share saying colleges have a negative effect on the country went from 37% to 59% among this group. Over that same period, the views of Democrats and independents who lean Democratic have remained largely stable and overwhelmingly positive.

Gallup found a similar shift in views about higher education. Between 2015 and 2018, the share of Americans saying they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in higher education dropped from 57% to 48%, and the falloff was greater among Republicans (from 56% to 39%) than among Democrats (68% to 62%). 1

Two additional Pew Research Center surveys underscore the partisan gap in views about higher education. In late 2018 , 84% of Democrats and independents who lean to the Democratic Party said they have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in college and university professors to act in the best interests of the public. Only about half (48%) of Republicans and Republican leaners said the same. In fact, 19% of Republicans said they have no confidence at all in college professors to act in the public interest. And in early 2019 , 87% of Democrats – but fewer than half (44%) of Republicans – said colleges and universities are open to a wide range of opinions and viewpoints.

Republicans and Democrats differ over what’s ailing higher education

A 2018 Pew Research Center survey took a deeper dive into the reasons for these shifting views. The survey first asked whether the higher education system in the U.S. is generally going in the right or wrong direction. A majority of Americans (61%) say it’s going in the wrong direction. Republicans and Republican leaners are significantly more likely to express this view than Democrats and Democratic leaners (73% vs. 52%).

Among those who say higher education is headed in the wrong direction, some of the reasons why they think this is the case differ along party lines. Majorities of Republicans (77%) and Democrats (92%) say high tuition costs are a major reason why they believe colleges and universities are headed in the wrong direction.

Democrats who see problems with the higher education system cite rising costs more often than other factors as a major reason for their concern, while Republicans are just as likely to point to other issues as reasons for their discontent. Roughly eight-in-ten Republicans (79%) say professors bringing their political and social views into the classroom is a major reason why the higher education system is headed in the wrong direction (only 17% of Democrats say the same). And three-quarters of Republicans (vs. 31% of Democrats) point to too much concern about protecting students from views they might find offensive as a major reason for their views. In addition, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say students not getting the skills they need to succeed in the workplace is a major reason why the higher education system is headed in the wrong direction (73% vs. 56%).

There are significant age gaps among Republicans in these views. Older Republicans are much more likely than their younger counterparts to point to ideological factors, such as professors bringing their views into the classroom and too much concern about political correctness on campus. For example, 96% of Republicans ages 65 and older who think higher education is headed in the wrong direction say professors bringing their views into the classroom is a major reason for this. Only 58% of Republicans ages 18 to 34 share that view.

A 2017 Gallup survey found similar partisan divides when it asked those who expressed only some or very little confidence in U.S. colleges and universities why they felt that way. Democrats tended to focus more on costs and quality, with 36% volunteering that college is too expensive, 14% saying colleges have poor leadership and are not well run, and 11% saying the overall quality of higher education is going down. Republicans focused more on political and ideological factors: 32% said colleges and universities are too political or too liberal (only 1% of Democrats volunteered this type of response). And 21% of Republicans pointed to colleges not allowing students to think for themselves and pushing their own agenda as reasons why they didn’t have a lot of confidence in them.

Another national survey conducted last year by Boston-based WGBH News looked more closely at views about the political climate at colleges and universities. A majority of adults (59%) said politics on college campuses lean toward a particular viewpoint, while 28% said campuses are nonpartisan. Of those who thought politics lean toward one particular viewpoint, 77% said they lean liberal, while 15% said they lean conservative. About half (47%) of those who see an ideological tilt at colleges and universities said this is a major problem, while 32% said it’s a minor problem.

These views differed substantially by party. A majority of Democrats (60%) said students are hearing a full range of viewpoints on college campuses, but only 26% of Republicans shared that view. 2 In addition, Republicans were much more likely than Democrats to see a political leaning on college campuses: 72% of Republicans compared with 48% of Democrats said campuses lean toward one particular viewpoint. Among those who saw a political leaning, majorities of Republicans (85%) and Democrats (68%) said campuses lean more liberal than conservative. But Republicans were much more likely than Democrats to say that campuses leaning toward a particular viewpoint is a major problem – 67% of Republicans vs. 26% Democrats said this.

Views on the college admissions process

The equity of the college admissions process has come into question recently, with many concerned that wealth and privilege are having an undue influence. Earlier this year, the College Board announced that it will begin including an “adversity score ” along with a student’s SAT score in an effort to provide more information about students’ educational and socioeconomic backgrounds.

According to the WGBH News survey, the vast majority of Americans say it’s important for colleges and universities to have a diverse student body in terms of race and ethnicity. About six-in-ten (63%) say this is extremely or very important and an additional 22% say it’s somewhat important. Only 13% say diversity on campuses is not important.

However, a recent Pew Research Center survey finds that the public is not in favor of colleges and universities considering race or ethnicity in making admissions decisions. Some 73% of all adults say race or ethnicity should not be a factor in college admissions decisions. About one-in-five (19%) say this should be a minor factor and 7% say it should be a major factor. Majorities across racial and ethnic groups – 62% of blacks, 65% of Hispanics, 58% of Asians and 78% of whites – say race and ethnicity should not be a factor in admissions decisions. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say race and ethnicity shouldn’t be a factor in admissions decisions, but majorities of both groups express this view (85% among Republicans, 63% among Democrats).

So what factors does the public think should drive admissions decisions? High school grades top the list – 67% say grades should be a major factor in making these decisions, and 26% say they should be a minor factor. About half (47%) say standardized test scores should be a major factor, and 41% say they should be a minor factor.

Those two largely objective factors stand out among other potential admissions criteria. Fewer adults say community service involvement (21% cite this as a major factor, 48% minor) or being a first-generation college student (20% major, 27% minor) should be factors in making college admissions decisions. And fewer still say that athletic ability (8% major, 34% minor) or legacy status (8% major, 24% minor) should be factors.

In some cases, college graduates have different views on this than those who did not graduate from college. For example, while 57% of those with a four-year college degree say whether someone is the first in their family to attend college should be a major or minor factor in making admissions decisions, 43% of those without a bachelor’s degree say the same.

The value of a college degree

Despite the public’s increasingly negative views about higher education and its role in society, most Americans say a college education is important – if not essential – in helping a young person succeed in the world today. A 2018 Center survey found that 31% of adults say a college education is essential, and an additional 60% say it is important but not essential. However, far higher shares say a good work ethic (89%), the ability to get along with people (85%), and work skills learned on the job (75%) are essential for a young person to succeed.

When it comes to their own experiences with higher education, an earlier Center survey found that the vast majority of college graduates (from both two- and four-year institutions) say college was useful for them in terms of helping them grow personally and intellectually (62% say it was very useful in this regard, 31% say it was somewhat useful). Large majorities also say it was useful in opening doors to job opportunities (53% say very useful, 29% say somewhat) and in helping them develop specific skills and knowledge that could be used in the workplace (49% very, 35% somewhat).

Still, the public remains skeptical that today’s colleges are preparing people for the workforce. Only 16% say a four-year degree from a college or university prepares someone very well for a well-paying job in today’s economy, while 51% say it prepares them somewhat well. Community colleges get even less positive marks: 12% say a two-year degree from these colleges prepares someone very well for a job, and 46% say it prepares them somewhat well.

These views generally don’t differ markedly by educational attainment. Among adults with a four-year college degree or higher, 13% say a four-year degree prepares someone very well for a well-paying job; 11% of those with an associate degree say the same, as do 12% of those with some college experience but no degree and 17% of those with no education beyond high school. However, among those who didn’t complete high school, a much higher share – 40% – say a four-year college degree prepares someone very well for a well-paying job.

Republicans and Democrats have similar opinions on this, although Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say a four-year degree prepares people somewhat well for a high-paying job in today’s economy.

There’s a larger party gap in views on the main purpose of college. A majority of Republicans (58%) say it should be to teach specific skills and knowledge that can be used in the workplace, while only 28% say it should be to help an individual grow personally and intellectually. Democrats are more evenly divided on this: 43% say the main purpose of college should be developing skills and knowledge, while roughly the same share (42%) point to personal and intellectual growth.

Even amid doubts about the extent to which college prepares people for today’s job market and disagreement about what the role of college should be, the fact remains that a four-year college degree has very real economic benefits. The income gap between college graduates and those without a bachelor’s degree has grown significantly over the past several decades. In 1990, the median annual earnings for a full-time worker ages 25 to 37 with a bachelor’s degree or higher was $53,600. At the time, this compared with $40,200 for a worker with some college experience but no bachelor’s degree and $33,600 for a worker with no college experience. In 2018, the difference was even more pronounced: $56,000 for a worker with a bachelor’s degree or more education, $36,000 for someone with some college education and $31,300 for a high school graduate.

This broad overview of data on views about higher education in the U.S. reveals a complex set off attitudes – a public that still sees the benefit of a college education but has grown wary about the politics and culture on college campuses and the value of a four-year degree that has an ever-increasing price tag.

The partisan gaps underlying these views are reflective of our politics more broadly. From health care to the environment to immigration and foreign policy, Republicans and Democrats increasingly see the issues of the day through different lenses. But views on the nation’s educational institutions have not traditionally been politicized. Higher education faces a host of challenges in the future – controlling costs amid increased fiscal pressures, ensuring that graduates are prepared for the jobs of the future, adapting to changing technology and responding to the country’s changing demographics. Ideological battles waged over the climate and culture on college campuses may make addressing these broader issues more difficult.

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New evidence for the broad benefits of higher education.

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The 2018 General Social Survey reveals many personal benefits for those with college degrees in ... [+] addition to the wage premium that's once again been documented for college graduates.

Americans with a college education report they are happier, healthier and enjoying a higher quality of life than respondents with a high school education or less. That’s one of the main takeaways from the recently released results of the 2018 General Social Survey (GSS) .

Begun by NORC at the University of Chicago in 1972, the GSS is now conducted biennially, based on lengthy personal interviews with a nationally representative sample of thousands of adults. The GSS is highly regarded and heavily used by social scientists as a measure of what Americans think about a host of contemporary economic, social and personal issues such as quality of life, race relations, the environment, gender, marriage, politics and civil liberties.

Because the results can be stratified by personal characteristics of the respondents, it’s possible to examine how age, race, social class, education and respondents’ beliefs about themselves and their families relate to their views on various social and economic topics.

Included in the hundreds of questions are several that tap individuals’ feelings about their personal lives and well-being, with responses broken out by highest level of education completed (less than high school; high school; and college, which included a two-year degree or higher).

Here are selected highlights from the most recent GSS:

Taken all together, how would you say things are these days? The percentages answering very happy:

College: 36.4%                                                                                                                                                                                                                       High School: 27.1%

Less Than High School: 29.9%

In general, do you find life exciting, pretty routine, or dull? Answering exciting:

College: 58.0%                                                                                                                                                                                                                         High School: 45.7%                                                                                                                                                                                                                Less Than High School: 42.6%

Do you feel that the income from your job alone is enough to meet your family’s usual monthly expenses and bills? Answering yes:

College: 55.6%                                                                                                                                                                                                                        High School: 43.3%                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Less Than High School: 45.6%

So far as you and your family are concerned, would you say you are pretty well satisfied with your present financial situation, more or less satisfied or not at all satisfied. Answering p retty well satisfied:

College: 39.0%                                                                                                                                                                                                                        High School: 28.8%                                                                                                                                                                                                                Less Than High School: 22.9%

On the whole, how satisfied are you with the work you do? Answering very satisfied:

College: 53.1%                                                                                                                                                                                                                        High School: 46.6%                                                                                                                                                                                                                Less Than High School: 42.1%

Would you say in general your health is excellent, very good, good fair, or poor? Answering excellent or very good:

College: 64.9%                                                                                                                                                                                                                            High School: 47.9%                                                                                                                                                                                                                Less Than High School: 34.1%

Thinking about your physical health, which includes physical illness and injury, for how many days during the past 30 days, was your physical health not good? Answering ten days or more :

College: 5.5%                                                                                                                                                                                                                           High School: 11.7%

Less than High School: 11.0%

Thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression, and problems with emotions, for how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good? Answering ten days or more:

College: 12.5%                                                                                                                                                                                                                         High School: 15.7%                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Less Than High School: 11.3%

In terms of civic participation, 80.7% of college graduates reported voting in the last presidential election compared to 56.5% of high school graduates and only 34.7% of individuals with less than a college education.

Compared to those with less than a college education, college graduates reported more confidence in the leadership of science, medicine, major business, the press and the Supreme Court. Only small differences emerged for expressed confidence in the military, organized religion, financial institutions, and the executive branch. College graduates expressed less confidence in organized labor, Congress, and -- surprisingly -- education (individuals not completing high school education were almost two times more confident in educational leaders than those with a college degree).

The survey cannot answer what specifically accounts for the education-mediated differences. They could reflect the additional knowledge and skills that are developed with greater education. They are consistent with the recent finding that a college degree conveys a 75% wage premium -- or about $33,000 per year -- compared to a high-school diploma. They might be associated with the fact that among adults in the labor force those with a high school education or less are twice as likely to be unemployed or underemployed as those with a B.A. or more. They could be due to the personal attributes and family advantages that enable successful completion of more education. They may signal cumulative preferences and privileges typically granted to the more highly educated. Most likely, they reflect the combined effects of these and other influences.

What is clear is the overall greater sense of well-being, self-efficacy and financial well-being reported by those with college degrees. It remains fashionable among some pundits to question the value of a college education, especially during this period where higher education has been rocked by scandals. But the data also remain undeniably true - college conveys broad benefits, highly desired by most Americans.

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Academic Dishonesty Among Students in Higher Institutions of Learning: Implications for Quality Education

24 Pages Posted: 10 Sep 2024 Publication Status: Under Review

Kahsay Hailu Negash

Adal Medical University

Velisiwe Gasa

University of South Africa (UNISA)

This research was undertaken to understand the implications of academic dishonesty on quality education. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. The study finds that students cheat during examinations for several reasons. If the cheating practice is left unattended, the students will leave universities ill-prepared and with low-quality education. This calls for higher institutions of learning to understand the root cause of the practice so as to come up with intervention strategies. Therefore, this paper outlines the causes of academic dishonesty, the implications of this practice on quality education, and provides some strategies to curb this practice.

Keywords: Higher Education, quality education, Academic Dishonesty, examination cheating

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Kahsay Hailu Negash (Contact Author)

Adal medical university ( email ), university of south africa (unisa) ( email ), do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on ssrn, paper statistics, related ejournals, social sciences & humanities open.

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On higher education, the difference between republicans and democrats couldn’t be starker.

With less than two months to go, the 2024 presidential election is nearing its final stretch. While Donald Trump and the Republican Party have made inflation, border security, and the economy their top issues, it’s refreshing to see another concern get outsized attention from the campaign: higher education. For too long, this important issue hasn’t been part of the policy discussion. And if Republicans offer solutions to the current administration’s incompetence and bias, it could be a winning message in November.

Higher education has become a campaign issue because college affordability and accessibility is now a real kitchen table issue for millions of American families. Nearly half of parents say they would prefer not to send their children to a traditional four-year college after high school, and two-thirds of high-school students think they will be just fine without a college degree. According to recent data the average cost per year to attend a private nonprofit four-year school was a whopping $40,000 .

Today, most traditional colleges fail to equip students with marketable skills to take into the workforce. They do, however, trap them in student loan debt that is becoming increasingly difficult to repay.

Students need better options. Despite the cost, many Americans still see long-term value in earning a traditional four-year degree, but many others do not. Exacerbating the problem, the U.S. Department of Education is closing off alternative options through enforcement actions and crippling regulations by ideological bureaucrats. Instead, the Department of Education is going after career colleges and proprietary schools, cutting off alternatives to the expensive four-year schools.

Notably, two harmful regulations 90/10 and gainful employment will potentially lock out thousands of students from schools the department doesn’t like. The regulatory burden of these rules only apply to a small segment of higher education institutions, ignoring the true drivers of the college affordability crisis: private non-profit schools.

By stifling students’ ability to attend programs at career colleges, the department instead pushes students to community colleges and traditional private and public colleges many sought to avoid.

Republicans recognize that alternatives to the traditional four-year school will help Americans over the long-term, which is why their 2024 party platform is geared toward reforming our higher education system. Not since the advancing of land-grant colleges in the 19th century has a party’s platform been so focused on higher education issues. It’s a step in the right direction, showing how a Republican administration will be focused on governing and making government work better for all Americans and students.

Though the entire platform is shorter than it was in 2016, it’s clear that education is still a top issue. As the platform notes, “to reduce the cost of Higher Education, Republicans will support the creation of additional, drastically more affordable alternatives to a traditional four-year College degree.” This means making it easier to become a welder or electrician, rather than more degrees in gender studies or other unmarketable areas of study.

That’s why so many people choose to attend career colleges and proprietary schools. They want to learn real skills in health care, criminal justice, and information technology, among many others. Career colleges help equip students with hands-on experience in fields such as public safety, medical and nursing, cosmetology, senior care, and much more. Importantly, programs at career colleges are usually more affordable and offer significantly greater flexibility than traditional four-year schools.

The platform also promises to “prepare students for great jobs and careers, supporting project-based learning and schools that offer meaningful work experience.” Equipping the next generation with skills to succeed is incredibly important, especially as the skills gap continues to widen in sensitive areas like elder care, health care, and IT.

Americans have seen the failed record of the Biden-Harris Department of Education. With Republicans offering a real alternative, the difference could not be starker. Under this administration, we’ve seen the department fumble its FAFSA roll out, offer unconstitutional student loan bailouts, cut off access to higher education alternatives, and ignore antisemitic protests across college campuses. Republicans will offer real solutions to expand access, cut costs, and deliver for the next generation of workers.

The results of this election may be close, but on education issues, the two parties are nowhere near each other.

• Matthew Kandrach is president of Consumer Action for a Strong Economy

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