While college as we know it is becoming increasingly unrecognizable, the value of a college degree has more value today than ever before.
Leaders from industrialized nations increasingly acknowledge that college is the new finish line, the equivalent credential in today's job market of a secondary school diploma a generation ago, and that not nearly enough young people are even starting, let alone, finishing the race.
The United States projects that 20 million new, high-paying jobs will go unfilled in the next decade, because they require postsecondary training and credentials. It's just as bleak in Europe, where a McKinsey report cites a lack of skills and training as a primary reason why nearly a quarter of their youth today are without jobs.
The global higher education system is plagued with uncertainty and challenges. In 2012, researchers at the University of Melbourne ranked the United States higher education system No. 1 in the world despite its broken funding formula and other flaws. Since 1985, the price of a college education in the U.S. has increased 539 percent, while student loan debt now totals $1.2 trillion.Couple these cost challenges with the drastic changes driven by social media and technology that are disrupting traditional models of teaching and learning, and it's no surprise that the next decade will bring an even greater transformation in higher education than we saw in the last 100 years.
Consider what's happening with MOOCs, or massive open online courses. In the last 18 months, Harvard, MIT and other universities worldwide have offered free courses to 2 million online learners through the platform edX. Digital learning promises to revolutionize the classic variables of higher education, including location and place, access and cost.
The variable that most needs to change is also the most daunting. Higher education must reach the millions of low-income young people who traditionally have been excluded. While Korea and China are showing gains in the inclusion of low-income youth, most nations continue to struggle mightily. In the U.S., access and graduation rates between low-income students and their upper-income peers continue to widen. Although this trend and others paint a bleak picture, there are proven initiatives in the U.S. and other countries, including College For Every Student and the Trinity College Access Programmes, that provide rays of hope.
These challenges can no longer be solved by one nation in isolation. Our economies, governments and education systems will only become more interdependent. Global solutions rooted in communication and cooperation are vital for creating and sustaining higher education opportunities that meet the needs of a changing world.
This is why higher education and corporate leaders, funders, policy makers and secondary educators from across the globe will convene at the College 2025 Summit in Essex, Essex County, this week.
Following the summit — jointly sponsored by College For Every Student and Trinity College Dublin — the organizers will produce a solutions-driven white paper on what college will look like in 2025 and specifically what action we must now take to significantly increase the proportion of low-income global citizens with college degrees.
Only by understanding the challenges and variables that will define College 2025 can we achieve our goals to build and sustain the social capital that will allow our youth worldwide, regardless of economic circumstance, to enter and complete the higher education race.
Cliona Hannon is the director of the Trinity Access Programmes. Rick Dalton is president & CEO of College For Every Student.
