The Biggest Strategic Problems in Higher Education

For a long time, higher education has been a matter of debate. As more adults join the workforce with a huge amount of knowledge but with zero experience, they get the realization that they cannot find jobs. For people with higher education, underemployment has become an ongoing struggle. And it’s one of the several important issues that our adults are experiencing these days.

Then while they face underemployment during their mid- to late-twenties, they’re likely to be crippled by student loan debt. Higher education systems’ strategies have raised this question in many people’s minds – how higher education can ever return to its earlier glory.

Delusion of Job Fulfillment and Demand

After the 2009 recession, the biggest issues graduates have been facing are underemployment and unemployment. Although unemployment rates may not seem to be in deplorable condition as of recently, underemployment rates are worrying. Students having advanced education cannot find jobs with a remuneration of more than just above the minimum wage.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t alter the belief that higher education plays a central role in fulfilling life goals like advancing in a career or earning high salaries. Colleges need to be considerate about what promises they’re making to new students. Students that are going to a higher education institution to land better employment may not require full-time schooling, which is the preference of other students.

Job demand and job fulfillment are beginning to be the mythical monsters of the college experience. Everybody attends classes and continues to exist on very little for years. They live in the hope of seeing a phoenix at their journey’s end.

Issues with For-Profit Colleges

The conventional strategy of higher education institutions has been taken to a new extreme by for-profit colleges. They’d enroll students irrespective of their chances of graduating or finding employment. Then when those students performed poorly or couldn’t find employment, they took their checks and deliberately ignored them. The Bachelor degree addiction, which has a solid grip on the country now, was founded by these schools.

Underhanded enrollment practices and aggressive marketing can make it simple for these institutions to cash in on students that otherwise wouldn’t be able to enter a program. Doing an analysis of the financial records of the institution or utilizing a well-paid employment metric can help eliminate unethical institutions.

Probable Spending Solutions

Imagine that every student having a bachelor’s degree has a debt of a minimum of $30,000 to the federal government because of student loans. Now, include the grants that students don’t repay. The government is losing rapidly and uncontrollably to keep higher education institutions open. The reason is that colleges and universities obtain payment regardless of whatever happens.

If a student fails to graduate, the school receives payment. If a student remains unemployed after graduation, the school receives payment. When higher education network receives payment regardless of the outcome, it’s hard to have any influence on them.

Presently, movements are going on to modify that system, which may fix a number of issues for students but generate more strategic problems for the institutions. The republican congress, as well as the Trump administration, are spending time on creating terms of conditional funding. Offering aid and guaranteeing to fund institutions that report high well-paid employment after graduation et cetera. The overall objective is to set up income share agreements that’d generate accountability within schools to dedicate a risk capital for every student.