Increasing College Access While Controlling Costs
The Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) recently released its report on a summit of what it describes as “200 higher education stakeholders” who addressed the topic “Difficult Dialogues, Rewarding Solutions: The Imperative to Expand Postsecondary Opportunities While Controlling Costs.” The report tells how the summit participants developed an overall understanding of the “problem,” issues that remained unresolved, and some thoughts about solutions.
Given that this blog is about the substantial number of adult and part-time students who tend to get forgotten when higher education public policy decisions get made, I was especially pleased to see the following passage in the section of the report that deals with possible solutions:
Differentiating Programs to Match the Diversity of College Students
Many of the nation’s leaders and elites were themselves “traditional students,” who left home at age 18 and lived on campus or in a university town for four years and graduated four years later with a bachelor’s degree. In many cases, they seek this same experience for their children. Not surprisingly, then, much of our thinking and discussion of higher education seems to presuppose this vision.
But as many of the groups mentioned, this model describes only a fraction of students today. Today it is the “non-traditional” student who is the norm, but many of our institutions do not reflect the new reality. One obvious example is that our current systems of financial aid are mostly designed for full‐time students while most part‐time students have an equal or greater need for financial assistance.
If the goal is to produce a greater number of better educated individuals, one approach would be to diversify educational programs to meet the needs of a diverse student population. A variety of proposals came out of the discussion groups:
• Stop using the term “non-traditional” students.
• Make curricula more relevant to the needs of nontraditional students. (As one group said: “What we are selling is not what they are buying.”)
• Enhance technical education, recognizing that not all students need a four‐year academic degree.
• Grant college credits for knowledge and experience gained outside the classroom.
• Develop instructional delivery programs suited to the needs of adult learners (using a variety of locations and technologies for maximum flexibility).
• Expand distance education suitable for part‐time students who are also working.
• Move away from one‐size‐fits‐all models of student engagement to develop new models suitable for older students.
I could not have said it better myself. And the really good thing is that this summit included state legislators, higher education board members, and state higher education system leaders. Thank you, MHEC!
Mike
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Welcome to The Other 85 Percent. So what does "the other 85 percent" refer to? Research has shown that only about 15 percent of higher education students still fit the traditional definition of young adults age 18 to 22 who live on campus and go to school full time. more
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Steve Vodhanel Says:
Hi Mike,
And not a WORD about student debt?
I find it peculiar that there is no discussion at any level, let alone here in this Capella intranet, of the huge burden that student debts are placing on adults today. It is really time to begin a discussion regarding this enormous issue, please. Yes, I think there is a disconnect regarding calling for more citizens with a higher education, but the disconnect is not between whether or not it is appropriate for for-profit institutions to address the issue of higher graduation rates. The disconnect is that no one is even listening to us financially ruined middle-aged adults who, upon advice of so many people and institutions, went back to college by the only means possible – student financial debt.
From my research on the Internet I only find a situation that is extremely frightening with regards to how bankruptcy laws have been written that makes defaulting on student loans impossible, even when someone is faced with long-term unemployment or even illness. In fact, according to bankruptcy attorney Jonathan Ginsberg (www.thebklawler.com), because creditors are well aware of how the laws have been written “…they know that they can garnish wages or seize tax refunds so they have very little incentive to strike a deal.” It is interesting that Mr. Ginsberg has… “been getting a lot of calls and emails lately about student loan debt.”
Mike, I think it is high time, before any further discussion on anything regarding higher education, that immediate attention is given to the true cost for adults returning back to college. How can we bring this issue to the front page, and who is speaking for us, those that have returned to college only to find the light at the end of a tunnel to be a freight train of financial ruin barreling down upon us? Why are you not starting here first? All your other problems and issues facing higher education will become mute if the talk on the street is that by going back to college you have a fair chance of financial ruin. Who would then consider it? According to USA Today (6/12/2006) of the students that want to enter into social work, 37% of public and 55% of private school graduates start their careers with unmanageable debt. Who’s now going to consider social work as a field of employment?
Mike, please be aware, that while many students enter and leave higher education with manageable debts, there is a rapidly growing number of us who do not. What did I do wrong except return to school after a back injury at the age of 44? And, perhaps the most frightening thing, no one speaks for me. Are you sure that you want adults returning to school? Any more, I’m not so sure I do. I am quite aware that this growth in numbers is great for your business, but it seems to me that there is little discussion on the effects that the means to grow these numbers, increasing student debt, has upon those of us who enlarge these numbers by walking through the doors of higher education. Was I a fool for pursuing a higher education as an adult in the lower income brackets after losing a job with a back injury?
Mike, start here….not there. No one is speaking for us.
Thanks…Steve Vodhanel
April 16th, 2009 at 6:50 pm