What the Critics Get Wrong (and Right) About Higher Education

You don’t have to be a college president to have heard the chatter about a looming crisis in higher education. Headlines warn of the impact of declining numbers of traditionally college-age students, creating a supply and demand crisis for institutions that seems to underlie an increase in college closures and foreshadow a “higher education apocalypse.” The price of a college education (public or private) continues to rise rapidly, threatening to put it out of reach of many families. A student loan crisis endangers not only the financial opportunities of individuals, but the health of the entire American economy. All this combines with a sense of cultural upheaval and liberal bias on college campuses for a general rise in dissatisfaction in higher education. 

What the casual observer might not realize is that higher ed’s existential crisis is not new. In fact, throughout the 20th century, the sector endured several cycles of confidence and respect followed by scrutiny and doubt. Some of the clearest historical evidence of this is found in the archives of one of the academy’s most venerable journals, Daedalus (published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences). A 1964 volume titled “The Contemporary University: USA” featured essays laying out the unique strengths of the American higher education system; a mere six years later, “The Embattled University,” a 1970 volume, painted a gloomy picture: financial troubles caused by declines in state and federal funding, anticipation of a post-baby boom decline in college-age population, the impact of the post-civil rights era arrival of underrepresented students on campus, and societal polarization that increased the general decline in confidence in American institutions. When I look at today’s headlines, 2019 looks an awful lot like 1970.

In response to the gloom of the 1970 volume, the journal’s editor Stephen Graubard challenged college leaders to explain the enterprise of higher education to the broader public, calling this “the greatest obligation that falls on colleges and universities at this time.” Indeed, in 2019 the structure and operation of higher education remain opaque to most Americans. Our pricing and financial models are complex and frustrating to consumers, and many institutions have been reluctant to share data on their graduates’ outcomes. There are likely many reasons why this opacity has been maintained for so long: some parts arrogance (“of course the education we provide has value”), some parts impatience (“we don’t have the time to explain the complexity of what we do”), and some parts adherence to traditions that can make our institutions feel inaccessible. (I say this as president of a college that confers its degrees in Latin.)

But whatever has led to this lack of candor and clarity, we are at a moment when we need a new transparency within our sector. While the perceptions of higher education have taken a negative turn (a 2018 Gallup survey found that only 48% of Americans had confidence in higher education, down from 57% in 2015), the facts and data show a different story — sometimes rebutting assumptions completely, sometimes pointing to the complex reality underlying simple assumptions, always adding much needed nuance and context. At this particular moment — when higher education policy is already becoming important campaign material for the 2020 elections — illumination of data on the value, limitations and potential of college is critically needed.  

So for my next few LinkedIn posts, I will focus on a specific piece or set of data that help to elucidate some of the complexity behind contemporary higher education: what institutions make up the higher education sector, who goes to college, how students pay for college, what is responsible for cost, and how college prepares students for career. Using facts and data, we will illustrate the essential role of higher education in contemporary America — its strengths and shortcomings, in full daylight, leaving nothing off the table.

Sean Decatur is the 19th president of Kenyon College. Follow his writing here and on Kenyon’s website.