The American Council on Education (ACE) has released its Winter Term Pulse Points Survey. These latest data examine the perspectives of higher education leaders across a variety of issues, revealing their priorities and concerns for the coming year.
As part of the survey, leaders were presented with a series of 13 issues and asked to rate their level of concern — from no concern at all to “extremely concerned” — for each. The shares saying they were “extremely/moderately concerned” about each are presented in the table below.
As seen in the data, concerns about the perceived value of college were the most pressing. The top concern was policymakers’ perceptions about the value of college, with 81% saying this was extremely or moderately concerning, followed by the public’s perceptions of the value of college (76% extremely/moderately concerned). The third issue, state/federal policy involvement in academic freedom and institutional authority (72% extremely/moderately concerned) is a direct outgrowth of the top two issues. Policies made by policymakers who question the value of college, elected by a public that questions the value of college, are likely to be of greater concern than policies made in an environment where beliefs about the value of college is widely shared.
The focus on the public and policymakers’ perceptions of the value of college is the right one. As we have argued for some time, the value proposition of higher education is not the same as it once was. As the cost of a college education increased while its economic payoff became more uncertain, the inherent value of higher education was called into question. This dynamic affects everything from future students’ willingness to consider attending a college/university to policymakers’ willingness to appropriate funding for institutions’ operations and research. Moving forward, higher education leaders need to consider both the value proposition of their institutions and of higher education as a whole, and make the case much more forcefully to the general public.
