Why Improving Educational Benefits Is a Good Deal for the Military and Service Members

by Presidents Forum | Sep 23, 2024 | Policy

By Dr. Mark D. Milliron, National University

The nation’s population of college students is evolving rapidly, reflecting a broader spectrum of life experiences and responsibilities. Today’s learners are not only pursuing their degrees but are also balancing roles as parents, caregivers, and dedicated professionals. This shift is particularly evident in the growing number of military-affiliated students who are bringing their unique perspectives and experiences to higher education.

At National University, where I serve as president, about one-fourth of our entire student body is military-affiliated, as are half of all National University undergraduate students. These learners are integrating their service backgrounds into their educational pursuits and enriching the campus environment in the process. Our institution was founded in 1971 by retired U.S. Navy Capt. Dr. David Chigos, who saw a need for more educational opportunities that support deployed soldiers and Veterans. Today, National University remains a top educator of the U.S. military.

Military educational benefits, especially tuition assistance, can be a powerful force that ensures Veterans can succeed in civilian life and infuse the nation’s workforce with a steady supply of experienced and disciplined talent. Yet for many military-affiliated students, military benefits are no longer such a good deal, as the buying power of military tuition assistance has diminished rapidly. Few military members are taking advantage of the program. And according to a recent report from Rand Corp., military transition programs aren’t living up to their promise of helping service members translate their military skills and experience to the civilian labor force.

Higher education should serve as a crucial bridge between military service and civilian employment. The United States has an obligation to support military members during and after their service. Enhancing and expanding the utilization of current tuition assistance programs can help service members gain more skills for their current roles and prepare them for their civilian careers.

For years education benefits have ranked among the top reasons for joining the military. But the Department of Defense’s Tuition Assistance program that provides financial aid to active-duty service members is capped at $250 per credit hour and at $4,500 per year. At that rate, a service member who relies solely on program support would need seven years to earn an associate’s degree. And while college tuition and fees have risen dramatically in recent years, the program’s annual cap has not been increased since its inception in 2001.

Tuition assistance programs should provide enough funding so service members can earn a credential in a timely manner. Raising the cap to reflect the true cost of higher education is a simple and long-overdue fix.

Current funding levels for military education benefits are creating challenges for both service members and the institutions that serve them. Participation in the tuition assistance program has grown less cost-effective over time; indeed, a growing number of institutions are opting out because they no longer have the resources to sustain their support for active-duty service members. More ominously, the Army might follow the lead of other branches, which cut education benefits during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers should increase funding to the Defense Department’s education benefits so it can serve current students more effectively and encourage more service members to participate. Even a significant increase in tuition assistance would constitute just a small fraction of the Defense Department’s overall $850 billion budget request.

Finally, a 2017 Rand study found something surprising: Less than a quarter of new recruits were aware of the education benefits available to them. In addition, only about 20% of service members currently use tuition assistance.

As the tuition assistance program is modernized and improved, military leaders, policymakers and postsecondary institutions must ensure that more recruits and service members learn about this program and are motivated by the educational opportunities the military can provide.

To deal effectively with escalating global tensions, the U.S. must redouble its efforts to build and maintain a capable military. Improving tuition assistance and other education benefits can help our armed forces maneuver through a challenging recruitment landscape and invest in the futures of our service members.

The Imperative of Skills Acquisition in Higher Education: A Call to Action

by Presidents Forum | Sep 20, 2024 | Policy

By Gregory W. Fowler, PhD

Today’s rapidly evolving job market makes new demands of higher education, as learners turn to shorter, just-in-time learning experiences—flexible, stackable, and cost effective—to build skillsets explicitly tailored to their professional objectives. It is critical that lawmakers move to support and empower institutions that recognize and embrace this worldview, removing obstacles that impede efforts to recognize, standardize, and validate learning experiences that prioritize skills acquisition.

Gone are the days when skills-based learning was synonymous with vocational training or viewed as a reductive approach to learning. Today, rapid advances in technology demand flexibility, agility, and adaptability, and employers are increasingly likely to value practical over theoretical knowledge. Instead of automatically equating a traditional credential with competence or mastery, employers and learners alike are placing greater emphasis on an individual’s ability to demonstrate and acquire necessary skills.

Fundamental shifts are needed in postsecondary learning if we are to prepare a workforce capable of thriving in the 21st century, and institutions must be prepared to provide necessary knowledge and skills, assess and validate them, and communicate them in ways that are meaningful to both learners and prospective employers. This offers the new administration an opportunity to make an immediate and lasting economic impact across large and often underserved populations, including those who seek credit for prior learning; those with some college and no degree; displaced workers who are reentering the workforce, upskilling, or changing careers; learners in the military; and millions more.

These learners ask for and expect stackable certificates, certifications, or micro-credentials that can be evaluated and easily refreshed. They demand assurances that the skills they seek will have value in the future, and that they can be updated and augmented in response to emerging trends or technologies.

In response, my own institution—University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC)—has embraced skills as the foundation of our learning experiences. This includes taking deliberate steps to identify and name the skills we teach in our core products and mapping those skills to career paths.

It also involves embracing a worldview that values learning no matter where it happens. We pride ourselves on being the nation’s most transfer-friendly institution, accepting credit from a wide variety of learning providers, and we evaluate and grant credit for prior learning, whether it is gained on the job or in military training or demonstrated via assessments.

This approach is one that we have identified and embraced as vital for the continued relevance of our institution and, indeed, of postsecondary learning, but it comes with challenges, and again, offers lawmakers the opportunity to support real and impactful change in the lives of learners everywhere.

Several steps can be taken to support the transition currently underway.

First, skills-focused learning experiences are built around different measures of success, and the federal government can empower recognized accreditors to include standards that are applicable to skills-based programs. This could also encourage greater acceptance of short-form learning experiences, reducing the focus on credit and contact hours as the main criteria for federal financial aid eligibility.
Equally important, by incentivizing and recognizing partnerships with industry leaders and employers, lawmakers can encourage the development of curricula that align with current and projected job market demands while supporting and rewarding those employers who invest in workforce and career development, thus contributing to an agile and competitive workforce. (Simply increasing the $5,250 cap on untaxed educational benefits—in place since 1986—would support such investment.)
Finally, by voicing support for and spotlighting innovative teaching methods and learning environments that facilitate skills acquisition—such as project-based learning, internships, and collaboration with industry partners—lawmakers can underscore and promote the value of skills-based learning and accelerate its acceptance in mainstream learning and work environments.

In short, by recognizing, validating, and legitimizing skills acquisition as a central goal of education, the federal government can take crucial steps toward growing a workforce positioned to meet the demands of the modern economy. Similarly, by supporting postsecondary providers that embrace this approach, lawmakers can ensure that students are equipped with the skills they need to succeed in their careers and contribute to our nation’s prosperity. This shift will require cooperation among policymakers, educators, industry leaders, and third-party providers, and by supporting it, the new administration can affect lasting and impactful change that yields greater socioeconomic mobility and economic growth.

Policymakers Need Better Data on Economic Outcomes in Higher Education

by Presidents Forum | Sep 17, 2024 | Innovation, Policy

By Stig Leschly, Postsecondary Commission

Almost all US college students – no matter who they are and no matter where or when in life they attend college – report that a higher wage, a better job and a viable career are their top motivations for going to college. A safer and brighter economic future is not the only reason students go to college, but it is the most common and fundamental one.

Policymakers are responding to this nearly unanimous ask from students that colleges improve their economic prospects. State and federal lawmakers are migrating toward accountability and funding policies based on whether institutions improve the earnings and employment trajectory of their students.

For this policy movement to thrive, it needs to address a mundane but serious problem: the inadequacy of the data systems on which it relies..

The data systems in question are mainly those run by education, labor and tax agencies in DC and in states. These data systems track and link together the vast student-level data – on students’ college costs, on their wages before and after attending college, and on their demographics – that enable policymakers to draw accurate and fair conclusions about the economic outcomes produced by institutions.

Unfortunately, these data systems are often under-resourced, siloed, or inaccessible, which stalls and distorts good policymaking.

For example, when policymakers assess institutions’ earnings outcomes, they are often left to rely, because of data limitations, on the absolute wages that students experience at some point after they enter or graduate from an institution.

This is problematic. Students’ absolute wages say almost nothing about the effect (positive or negative) that a given institution has on those wages. An institution might succeed in graduating students into high-wage jobs simply by selecting students who were already on track for high- paying careers.

Conversely, a non-selective institution that graduates students with seemingly unremarkable salaries might actually be doing extraordinary work if students’ actual wages are far above the wages they would have earned if they had never enrolled.

This sort of analysis of wage outcomes – often called value-added earnings analysis or wage gain analysis – takes into account the need-level and baseline earnings outlook of students who enroll in a given institution, and as a result, is far more accurate and fair than standard approaches to assessing earnings outcomes. And, it is possible only where underlying data systems are in good order.

An added benefit of surfacing the wage gains that institutions produce for their students is that it allows policymakers to make sense of the prices that institutions charge. Whether an institution is over- or under-priced depends on whether the institution generates wage gains for its students that are large enough to compensate students in a reasonable timeframe for their cost of attendance.

In another example of how data gaps inhibit good higher education policy, federal and state lawmakers have not done enough to monitor and regulate the economic outcomes of college entrants who never graduate, a group of students who comprise nearly half of US college-goers. This policy lapse is partly because lawmakers know so little about non-completers and their outcomes. They are typically under-tracked and sometimes completely ignored in higher education data systems. With better underlying data systems, policymakers would be able to track and set policy for the economic outcomes of all college entrants, not just those who complete.

This development would amount to a break-through. It would allow policymakers to sort out in detail – institution by institution, program by program – when dropping out is a problem for students (because it saddles them with high costs and no degree) and when it is not a problem for students (because they exit early and with few financial consequences).

A promising policy movement toward better economic outcomes in US higher education has started. For this movement to persist and for it to mature into sound accountability and funding policy, it needs to run on better student-level data systems in DC and in states.

Federal and state policy makers should immediately and aggressively fund improvements to these data systems. In its pursuit of better economic outcomes in US colleges, public policy can only be as good as the data on which it is based.

Lisa Vollendorf on Higher Education Access and Reform

by Presidents Forum | Sep 13, 2024 | Innovation, Policy

Lisa Vollendorf on Higher Education Access and Reform

Why it matters

President Vollendorf’s insights look to shape future higher education policies, especially regarding access and affordability.

Key takeaways

Empire State University focuses on accessibility and serving learners of all ages.
Current incentive structures in higher education need reform to prioritize student success over institutional metrics.
Pell Grant program requires updates to better serve non-traditional students.
State reciprocity is crucial for serving diverse populations, including military personnel and Puerto Rican students.

What’s next

President Vollendorf calls for the Department of Education to:

Rethink Pell eligibility and consider a Pell completion program.
Incentivize collaboration across institutions.
Focus on serving learners of all ages and backgrounds.

The bottom line

Higher education institutions need support to serve a diverse student population, focusing on student success rather than institutional success.

Adapting Higher Education to Meet the Needs of Today’s Learners

by Presidents Forum | Sep 11, 2024 | Innovation, Policy

By Dr. Becky Takeda-Tinker, CSU Global President

The World Economic Forum reports that 50% of the adult population will need to reskill and upskill by 2025, while the U.S. Bureau of Labor reports that in the U.S. alone, we currently have over 9.5 billion unfilled jobs with the working-age population continuing to shrink since 2007. Similarly aligned with those highlights on workforce dynamics, what we are seeing at my university, Colorado State University Global, is that students of today, particularly post-traditional adult learners, are less interested in longer term workforce education investments as they increasingly seek more targeted, short-form learning opportunities.

Some of those students may be looking to meet a specific professional school prerequisite, test out a school, or acquire a focused skill, without intending to pursue a full degree program. And what we find is that such students need educational solutions that are affordable and flexible, and that allow them to take one individual course at a time without intensive application processes and requirements.

The rise of non-degree credentials, such as certificates, certificates, licenses, and apprenticeships, has taken off in recent decades, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic and to the benefit of learners. As educational leaders, we understand that not everyone is able to commit to pursuing a degree and that many want to learn a skill on a pay-per-course basis and advance their professional prospects without putting their life on hold.

In fact, according to a study from the Lumina Foundation, non-degree credentials are associated with increased employment. Earning a non-degree credential of any kind has been associated with a 5%-to-15% increase in the likelihood of being employed. Further, non-degree credentials generate earnings benefits, as adults with a six-to-12-month credential increased earnings by an average of $2,600 per quarter.

As leaders of institutions of higher education, we need to remain open to adapting to changing demographic needs and continue to improve and create new programs that meet the evolving demands of today’s learners. At CSU Global, the nation’s first fully online, accredited state nonprofit campus as part of the Colorado State University System, non-degree seeking students have access to the full CSU Global Course Catalog of short 8-week courses, with convenient start dates every month. Our approach to non-degree-seeking education is both comprehensive and accessible, with several options for students interested in advancing their skills without having to spend hours completing a lengthy application or committing to a full degree program. By focusing on specific skill sets and knowledge areas of immediate workforce needs, students who may need to enhance their qualifications or pivot their careers without the time or financial commitment associated with traditional degrees and educational programs can do so.

Particularly over the last couple of years, we have seen a trend in increased non-degree seeking students at CSU Global, with the population making up 12% of our total new enrollments this year.

This trend towards non-degree pathways is not occurring in isolation. It is part of a broader shift in higher education driven by several factors. One significant influence is the complexity and evolving nature of financial aid processes. Recent changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) have introduced new challenges for students seeking financial support for traditional degree programs. A complicated application process and shifting eligibility criteria has potentially made it more difficult for students to navigate the processes for enrollment. The evolving updates to the FAFSA can be overwhelming, especially for those who are already balancing work and family responsibilities. As a result, some students may be discouraged from pursuing full degree programs due to the financial uncertainty and administrative hurdles and are instead turning to non-degree-seeking options, which often require less financial and time investment and offer more immediate benefits.

Institutions, particularly those that are fully online and largely cater to adult learners, may provide accessible options that align with the needs of today’s job market. In particular, CSU Global offers a streamlined enrollment process to its non-degree seeking students, with no need to send in transcripts, no GPA requirements, and no lengthy admissions process. Most importantly, courses are offered on a pay-as-you-go basis, one course at a time, meaning students do not need to take out massive loans or even deal with the FAFSA form to participate.

The rise in non-degree-seeking education reflects a wider trend towards personalized, practical learning, driven by both changings student preferences and external factors such as the complexities of the FAFSA process. It is critical that we as leaders in higher education respond to these shifts by providing processes, pathways, courses, and programs that are flexible, industry-relevant, accessible, and which provide a tangible return-on-investment. As students continue to seek educational opportunities that fit their individual needs and circumstances, non-degree pathways will likely become an even more prominent feature of the higher education landscape, and CSU Global with its innovative spirit will continue to provide new options and pathways that meet the ever-changing needs of the post-traditional students it was created to serve.

Supreme Court Overturns Chevron Deference: What It Means for Higher Ed

by Presidents Forum | Sep 6, 2024 | Policy

Supreme Court Overturns Chevron Deference: What It Means for Higher Ed

One big thing

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Chevron deference will have major implications for how federal agencies operate, especially in higher education.