WGU President Advocates for Accountability and Bold Reform

Why it matters

Higher education institutions need to be held accountable for student outcomes and embrace innovation to remain relevant and valuable.

The big picture

President Pulsipher emphasizes two main points:

• Increasing accountability for outcomes: Institutions should prove their value by demonstrating how they improve students’ lives.
• Encouraging innovation: Policies should incentivize new models that expand access, lower costs, and increase relevance to future work.

By the numbers

WGU measures its impact through the “Factor Graduate Return”:

• Graduates see a median 26x return on their investment
• Some programs yield over 50x return
• Even lower-return programs in education see 12-15x returns

Between the lines

President Pulsipher argues that higher education should democratize opportunity, not stratify society further.

The bottom line

President Pulsipher argues that higher education should democratize opportunity, not stratify society further.