A Potential Turning Point for Higher Education
"Higher education essentially preserves intergenerational racial and class inequality in America now," said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University's Center on Education and Workforce in a quote for a June 2020 MarketWatch article. Carnevale and his colleagues dubbed the "Merit Myth" about how, in the U.S., we're raised to believe that access to education is essentially fair and equal—not unlike the myth of the "American Dream."
But many of us know that we don't live in a world with a level playing field. In order to address these inequities, we need to focus on policy change and how we fund higher education. There's been a lot written on these inequities in higher education for years, but like so many issues, the pandemic and subsequent racial justice uprisings helped bring inequities in higher ed to the forefront and make changing it a priority.
Here are a couple ways the areas around higher education that were being critiqued even prior to the pandemic:
The cost of higher education had skyrocketed creating a student loan debt crisis. In 2019 62% of college seniors graduated with over $28,000 of debt on average. For Black students, this level of debt can be debilitating where 13% of Black borrowers are projected to never be able to pay off their student debt.
College entrance requirements were barriers for lower-income and students of color. Many, such as Anthony Carnevale, critiqued that requirements such as SAs and college entrance essays uphold social class systems. Students with resources can take expensive classes or pay for feedback to help polish these essays that are out of reach for low-income students. Writer Paul Tough goes into these factors in great detail in his new book The Inequality Machine: How College Divides Us(and is also touched upon in a This American Life episode in March).
While all of this was known and acknowledged by researchers for decades, very little was being done in a larger-scale way to make changes. Changes were up to individual institutions (and sometimes still are), but as awareness grows, we're seeing an increase in changes taking hold across institutions. Between the very real cost to institutions from the pandemic (see below) and the critiques of academia's archaic structure upholding white supremacy from the Black Lives Matter movement, this is an important moment for change.
How the Pandemic Affected Higher Education
The pandemic created a situation quite different from what was seen in the2008 Great Recession, when higher education enrollment increased exponentially as students put off entering an uncertain job market. This hasn't happened with the coronavirus pandemic. Enrollment began to drop immediately for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 National Student Clearinghouse Research Center data shows that undergrad enrollment declined at its steepest rate during the pandemic at -5.9%. According to a Brookings report, the decline is even sharper among Black and Native students (-8.8% and -13%, respectively).
This drop in enrollment is across the board, even in community colleges. As the charts in this story in The Marker shows, the institutions most likely to fully weather this storm are the ones with large endowments (read: the rich institutions). This consolidates and makes elite schooling even more of a problem.
But as this pandemic has done for every field and industry, possibilities emerge. While these possibilities have already been there, talked about, researched, and advocated for, more people—politicians, people in power, and a rising growth of vocal advocates—are paying attention.
Possibilities
Do a Google search on "higher education changes in Covid" and you come across pages worth of op-eds and articles about how higher ed needed a crisis to finally change (like this one and this one from Inside Higher Ed).
Here are some of those possibilities emerging from this moment:
Re-thinking the SAT
With trouble already brewing for the SATs (the test's racist origin didn't help either), the pandemic moved many schools across the country to waive the SAT requirement for entry. The largest-scale move was among the University of California system where for its 10 schools, they moved to permanently remove any requirements for the SATs or ACTs. In 2020, there has already been a notable effect of removing the SAT score where elite universities saw a more diverse freshman class. While many schools around the country removed the requirement temporarily, the immediate impact on diversity at elite institutions and the example of the UC system's move could prompt greater movement at institutions across the country.
Tackling the Student Debt Crisis
While a wholesale cancellation of student loan debt is still not in the immediate foreseeable future, Congress and President Biden have begun to lay the groundwork for such action through the Covid-19 bill. The bill passed in early March included a provision to make any student loan debt tax-free. While it doesn't mean that cancellation is imminent, it does mean they are putting structures in place to get there.
Investments in Historically Black Colleges and Universities
The March Covid stimulus package also included significant investment in HBCUs. Between the racial justice movement and Covid, the disparity between HBCU funding versus historically white institutions was also laid bare. The additional $2.6 billion of funding to HBCUs this year is historical and overdue and there's been an increased awareness about that disparity in funding. MacKenzie Scott's historic donation to HBCUs (including $40 billion to Howard University) among many other recipients, shows the importance of building financially stable Black higher ed institutions.
Investing in Technical and Community Colleges
The dive in enrollment impacted community colleges greatly and more so given they don't have the same endowments that elite colleges do. But these affordable, accessible, flexible, and learner-focused schools are important for communities. The March Covid stimulus package included $12 billion in support for such colleges, hopefully showing the need to support these important community education resources.
Expanding Alternative Higher Education Opportunities
In a survey last summer conducted by SimpsonScarborough, 40% of freshmen intending to attend four-year colleges responded that they were likely or highly likely to take a gap year. While many of these students will likely enter four-year traditional colleges when Covid is less of an issue, this does beg the question about whether traditional higher ed is the way to go, at least right out of school.
Beyond gap year programs giving students the opportunity to learn in the real world before going to school, there are alternative colleges offering opportunities to learn in the real world while being in school. One is MYX which is kind of a gap year location-approach to college with centers based around the world combined with curriculum from accredited institutions. And, local to me here in Portland, is Wayfinding Academy which is a two-year college that is focused on experiential and collaborative learning focused on creating active, engaged, and justice-driven graduates (full disclosure, I write for Wayfinding and I'm a huge fan of their approach and work). These types of alternative schools are on the vanguard of meeting students where they're at and helping them create their own pathways that aren't defined by traditional approaches to success.
Our next issue will feature an interview with Wayfinding President and Founder, Michelle Jones, so you can learn more about their approach and trends she's seeing in higher education.
Institutional Changes in Response to Black Lives Matter
The international racial justice protests also shed light on structural racism within institutions of higher ed. While there's still a lot to be done within academia, there are some incremental changes being made in some higher ed spaces that show the potential for greater structural change. Diverse Issues in In Higher Education noted a few changes they've seen both at the curricular level. Some schools, like Carthage College, are integrating seminars focused on race and antiracism for freshmen. Others are creating structural support systems for first-generation college students and students of color that give them the tools they need to succeed (the This American Life episode with Paul Tough also shows this through an experience of one student at University of Texas, Austin). Also, check out Diverse Issues in Higher Education with their recommendations for concrete policy changes including
Pushing Beyond a Glacial Pace
Higher education institutions are known to function at a glacial pace (believe me, I worked in higher ed for about 10 years). But when finances are involved (per the drop in enrollment rates) and the distribution of wealth and opportunity between certain institutions and among their own students is seen more plainly, perhaps there's cause for quicker movement for a cultural shift.
Some of these will be at the institutional level, but some as we're seeing are going to be at a cultural level. Many are seeing that college might not provide the wealth-building opportunities it once promised, so hopefully now is the time for us all to think about what higher ed looks like beyond this moment.