The Perceived Quality Gap Is Closing: What Employers Really Think About Online Degrees
For years, online education has had to overcome a perception challenge. Many assumed that if students had the option, they would always choose a traditional campus experience, and employers often viewed online credentials as somehow less rigorous or less valuable.
But higher education has changed dramatically. Today’s learners are increasingly working adults, parents, military-affiliated students, and career changers who need education that fits their lives, not the other way around. In fact, the traditional-age, residential student is no longer the majority of learners in higher education, and nearly one in three college students now take their courses exclusively online.
As online learning has become a mainstream pathway to education, employer perceptions appear to be evolving alongside that reality.
A new study from Ithaka S+R suggests that while some bias toward online credentials remains, employers are placing far greater emphasis on demonstrated skills, relevant work experience, and job readiness than on whether a degree was earned online or in person.
For institutions serving nontraditional students, that’s an encouraging and important shift.
Transcript
Wesley Smith (00:00.694)
Welcome to Just One Question with the Presidents Forum. I’m Wesley Smith, and today I’m joined by the Presidents Forum’s policy fellow, Amy Glyn. We’re going to explore just one question. Amy, there’s new research on employer perceptions of online credentials. What does it tell us about the future of higher education and the students that we serve?
Amy Glynn (00:26.933)
Yeah, Wes, thanks for having me again. You know, I think the biggest takeaway is that employers are becoming much more focused on outcomes and capabilities than educational modality. Right. And this is a really tremendous win for those of us who are familiar with the high quality and rigorous standards of more.
Of our online programs. So the research that you’re talking about, it was a study completed by Ithaca SR, where they surveyed more than 540 hiring managers and recruiters nationwide, and that they found that the difference in employer preference for entirely
in-person degrees versus online was really shrinking and has gotten quite small. An in-person degree increased the likelihood of a candidate selection by only two and a half percentage points over an otherwise identical online degree. And so by comparison, factors like relevant work experience and demonstrated skills are beginning to play a much larger role in the hiring decision that we’re that.
You know, that’s what they’re telling us. and it’s really significant because it suggests that the perceived quality gap between traditional and online education has narrowed. The study also found that.
Institutional selectivity mattered less than many of us in higher education might have assumed. Moving from a less selective institution to a more selective one changed the hiring preferences by only about five to six percentage points. So employers are, yeah, right? I thought it was interesting. I I know I just had a bias really revealed.
Wesley Smith (01:56.163)
Interesting. Yeah. I
Right. Yeah. I th I thought that the gap would be much larger than that.
Amy Glynn (02:06.719)
Yeah, and it’s because employers are increasingly asking, can this person do the job? Rather than simply where did they go to school? And for the students we serve, that’s incredibly important. For millions of working adults, parents, rural students, students with disabilities, military learners, online education isn’t a second choice. It’s the model that makes higher education possible. and our students are
Are often already employed. And so they’re leading teams, they’re serving in the military, they’re raising families, applying what they’re learning in real time. And they don’t just graduate with a credential, they’re graduating with experiences, resiliency, practical skills that employers are increasingly valuing. So, in many ways, our students are embodying exactly what this research suggests. Employers are asking candidates.
Who can demonstrate competency and contribute immediately in the workplace?
Wesley Smith (03:05.314)
This is this seems to be really good news for presidents forum institutions. What should their takeaway be from it?
Amy Glynn (03:12.021)
I think the takeaway really is the work we are doing right now is being recognized. and and the the programs we have to to be able to identify and for our students to be able to demonstrate the skills that they have gained or advanced within their education is going to really be an important part of the student presenting the portfolio to advance their career.
Right, so it’s no longer just the transcript, but how do we demonstrate the skills that a student has acquired to future employers? Or how do we help the students build that portfolio of demonstratable skills and present that information to employers either in the in the hiring or the promotion process?
Wesley Smith (03:59.416)
Right. Right. Well, Amy, we appreciate you taking time to review this with us. Of course, we’ll add this in in the show notes and we’ll encourage our not only the president’s forum institutions and leaders to look at it, but I mean gr encouraging information for all students to review before they decide on programs of study and what their options look like. Thanks, Amy.
Amy Glynn (04:21.93)
Absolutely. Thanks.