Higher Ed Worthiness About to [Really] Heat Up

Call this insightful foreshadowing: 2012 will be the year students and families earnestly ponder the question of whether a college-degree is worth it. We had an opportunity to spend some time with Dale Stephens at BIF's annual innovation summit. Dale is a Thiel Scholarship recipient - the program that launched in April by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who offered a couple dozen students scholarships to drop out of college and put their entrepreneurial skills to work. Dale's plan? He created "UnCollege," where students direct their own learning, seek out their own mentors, and "hack their education" in a way that personally suits them.  Sound interesting? Watch the video.

The Way We See It

The idea of education as an investment wherein one weighs risk against likely return is oddly foreign to many students. Students use very personal criteria such as dreams, inspiration and a sense of purpose to choose their school and guide financial decisions related to enrollment. Many students believe that to be the best they need the "best" education, with "best" being tied the perceived value of a school's brand. While high quality education is crucial, it is equally important for students to understand what they are getting in return, what that experience actually costs and what that means in terms of achieving their long-term goals. Few students recognized this concern within our study to capture the student experience.

Yet if one education trend captured the attention of the nation in 2011, it's the value equation. And rightfully so. The average college tuition has risen almost 110% since 1981, while the median family income has only risen 27% over the same period. Pew Research Center released a study that found that a majority of Americans believe the U.S. higher education system fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend. And Harvard University issued Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century  (link to pdf) which points to troubling signs that the U.S. is not preparing its adolescents and young adults to lead productive and prosperous lives as adults. 

This is why, regardless of whether you agree or disagree, young mavericks like Dale Stephens are needed to jolt the system into action. And why we expect to spend a lot of time solving the value equation in the lab in the coming year.