How Higher Ed Can Regain Student Trust
This piece was originally created in collaboration with Inside Higher Ed. Read the article here.
When higher education programs are more aligned with real-world job market needs, the programs better position graduates for professional success while also helping the U.S. economy in the process.
Students are graduating — often with debt — and with degrees that don't lead to good jobs. Employers, meanwhile, struggle to find qualified candidates with the skill set they desire. It's no wonder the percentage of U.S. adults who have little or no confidence in higher education has never been higher.
A July 2024 Gallup poll showed that 32% of U.S. adults have little or no confidence in higher education. This comes at the expense of those who have complete confidence. That number hovered around 60% as recently as 2015 but fell to just 36% in the July 2024 survey.
How can higher education institutions reverse this trend?
Leaders at the School of Business at Western Governors University (WGU) believe their academic model is a case study in how to prepare students to succeed professionally today, tomorrow and into the future.
Preparing for Real Opportunities
Leaders at the WGU School of Business are intensely focused on making sure their school is educating students in academic areas that will actually translate to job opportunities. They want students to pursue topics they are interested in, but they also want to ensure those interests lead to employment post graduation.
“Whenever we develop a degree program, we do research to make sure that there are jobs on the other side of it,” said Casey Clark, vice president and dean of business programs for the WGU School of Business. “If there is an area that we know students have been interested in studying but there are not clear job opportunities after that reflecting an ROI on what they spent, we won't go there.”
The only way to ensure that alignment is by partnering with those companies looking to hire WGU School of Business graduates. The school forms advisory councils made up of industry experts who are hiring right now for the positions students are learning about.
Those partners do more than just hire students, however. Before that, they also teach and mentor them. WGU School of Business hires faculty members with industry experience and then links them with individual students to help shepherd them through the challenges of the academic environment and beyond.
The WGU model is built on mentorship. Each student is assigned a program mentor who is an expert in his or her field. That mentor helps the student create a personalized plan that serves as a road map to their goals.
Mitsu Frazier, senior vice president and executive dean for the WGU School of Business, said she is most impressed by the stories these mentors share with their mentees – stories that don’t always reflect the best and brightest moments of their careers.
“Many times you hear about mentoring from a perspective of success, and, yes, these individuals have all been very successful,” Frazier said. “Where the magic happens is when the story doesn't have a happy ending. It makes it so powerful in their interactions with students, many of whom are trying to find an identity.”
Couple well-aligned curriculum with expert, honest, one-on-one mentorship and WGU School of Business’ leaders believe they found a way to reverse declining faith in higher education.
An Economic Advantage
This reversal is also needed to help the U.S. economy.
“Adaptability in the economy is extremely important,” Frazier said. “That makes of utmost importance ensuring that our workforce remains adaptable in order to be competitive in a global economy. It’s no secret that an educated workforce that is meeting current skill demands directly contributes to productivity and innovation.”
Having graduates without the skills needed for the marketplace leaves them — and the U.S. economy — vulnerable.
Students are vulnerable because they aren’t ready to embrace that feeling of familiarity the WGU School of Business strives to give students on their first day on the job. The economy and the companies that help support it are vulnerable because of how costly a bad hire truly is.
Research by CareerBuilder found the average cost of hiring the wrong employee tops $17,000. Higher-level positions boost the average. The costs aren’t just wages and benefits. They include all the costs associated with onboarding, training, lost productivity, disruptions in workflows, and follow-up turnover because of torpedoed workplace morale.
“There's nothing more costly than hiring the wrong person,” Clark said. “Researched over time, students having that WGU degree, the reputation that comes with it, and the skills aligned to workforce needs leads to less turnover. That money that the business would be paying for yet another hire can then be invested into research and development or marketing or different parts of the business to produce success.”
Advice for Higher Education Leaders
All of those factors lead to what Frazier and Clark believe is the most important component to bring about change in higher education.
“The first step is to start with listening,” Frazier said. “Listen to the industries that are growing. Listen to employers who are struggling to fill really critical roles. Listen to the dreams of employers and where they are hoping to take their business. The more you can partner with these businesses and stay on top of trends, the more you can capture what students truly need to be successful.”
The stakes are high, Frazier and Clark said, and the mission is clear.
“Aligning programs with the real world is not just about improving your course or your institution,” Frazier said. “You're literally making sure that every student who walks through your door can leave with an opportunity that is greater than what they had when they came through the door. That's the win. That's the definition of education.”
Reversing a Negative Trend
WGU is a nonprofit online university founded in 1997 by governors of 19 U.S. states. At WGU, the non-traditional student is the traditional student.
“Our average student is in their mid-30s with a job, and maybe a family, as they're going through the program,” Clark said. “How do you fit in school when you're working and supporting a partner, and maybe children? It’s really tricky, but it also can be a catalyst. Their decision is not just impacting one 19-year-old. This is impacting a whole family.”
WGU School of Business students — and often their families — make sacrifices to pursue the benefits of higher education. That is why the school's leadership is determined to prepare their students for professional success.
When alumni sit down for their first day of post-graduation work, the goal is for them to feel more like industry veterans than someone just starting out.
“We want working for the degree to be like your first day on the job,” Frazier said. “You’re actually doing the job while you’re going through the program, and that sets you up really well.”
The numbers indicate that what the school is doing is working.
WGU students surveyed post-graduation said they felt well-prepared for the workforce at nearly double the national average. More than 95% of surveyed employers who hired a WGU School of Business graduate said they would hire another.
The secret behind this success is a curriculum and program intensely aligned with the real-world needs of companies and a focus on giving students an increased return on their investment.
“Students who are making the decision to start or continue their education might be making a decision between paying their light bill and paying tuition,” Frazier said. “We owe it to students to make sure that their degrees translate into real opportunity.”
