The past decade has seen an increasing number of Americans questioning the value of a college degree. A survey just this past month found 51% of Americans thought college was a questionable investment, which jumped to 70% for those 18-34 without a degree. The COVID-19 pandemic may be exacerbating the impact of this view as many students whose education was disrupted are not heading back to college.
At the root of this challenge is a fact that higher education must be willing to address: colleges and universities have not evolved to meet the needs of most working learners. They are still mostly structured to serve students who have the time and money to commit full-time to college.
While higher education certainly must make large-scale changes to truly put learners first, including developing more science and data around serving working learners, it can start with simple and straightforward solutions to meet the needs of students who work.
Institutions should consider awarding credit for prior learning (CPL), which remains a barrier for many returning students who have been in the workplace or attended multiple schools. A recent study by CAEL and WICHE found that adult students who received CPL completed college at nearly twice the rate of their peers. However, only 11% of learners in that study had been able to earn CPL.
In health care, students returning to higher education too often struggle to transfer in non-credit certificates of value — even if they have industry-recognized certificates and significant working experience.
Colleges and universities that do not accept these credits are in essence telling working learners to start over — that their prior education and experience is worthless. If students are prohibited from stacking their credentials, they are forced to overcome artificial barriers that add time and money to their quest for a degree. By counting the knowledge and skills that learners have already earned, we can help more students graduate and enter the workforce more quickly. In the long term, this would also help the college serve a broader group of students with rich experiences.
Take the story of Crystal Carreras. When Crystal came to CHCP, she was working as a medical assistant at a hospital in Houston while raising four children between ages 9 and 20. She had enrolled in an online university but was displeased with that school’s complicated online portal, instructors who did not engage with students and a rigid class schedule that did not give her the flexibility she needed to be a mom, a full-time employee and a college student.
Crystal completed our health and medical administrative services associate’s degree program in eight months because she was able to transfer her prior credits. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in health care management in 20 months. The time savings and “earn and learn” model were critical to her as she juggled work and family.
She has been able to advance her career and is now at another local hospital and up for a promotion as a result of her bachelor’s degree. Her supervisors tell her that they are extremely happy with her wealth of knowledge and her dedication to patient care. It’s clear that her decision to continue her education has opened and continues to open doors for her. It was also important to Crystal to show her children that education — combined with hard work and support from the right school — is the key to success.
To eliminate barriers for students like Crystal, institutions need to understand who their learners are and what they are trying to achieve. Stackable education has enormous potential, especially for students trying to balance school, work and life. We must help them gain control over when and how they stack credentials. In order for stackability to really serve students, it must happen on the learners' terms, not the institutions’.
To better support working learners, institutions can create shorter programs with embedded certificates of value as well as multiple off-ramps for students who want to re-enter the workforce. This approach should prove popular: A recent UPCEA study found that seven in ten disengaged learners thought their institution could have done a better job of providing certificates for credits earned.
Meanwhile, research continues to show the challenges of “stranded credits,” which are credits that students have earned but cannot be awarded because they still owe money to their institution. We should never let students’ financial situation interfere with their receiving or applying credit.
At CHCP, we are proud to put this into practice. We have ensured that students who have completed credentials and demonstrated these skills in the workplace can move forward with their education. A recent Rice University impact study found that 74% of our students included in the study are first-generation college students, and many of those are single parents. This is a population with no time or resources to waste.
If we truly want to help working learners, we should not force them to start over every time they seek a new credential. A few institutions are leading the way. Within the past year, City University of New York and Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, for example, announced that they are ending the practice of withholding transcripts until college bills are paid. And in December, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona called on institutions to stop withholding transcripts because this policy leads to inequitable outcomes.
To make college a seamless and high-value experience for working learners, institutions must help students access education on their terms. America’s working learners cannot afford for colleges and universities not to make these changes to increase equitable access to higher education.
Eric Bing is Chancellor of The College of Health Care Professions (CHCP). He is also a Fierce Education Leader.