Kathleen deLaski’s new
book, Who Needs Collage Anymore?: Imagining A Future Where
Degrees Won’t Matter, offers an optimistic yet practical assessment of how
postsecondary education can evolve to meet the needs of next-generation
learners. She
reimagines what higher education might offer and whom it should serve.
This is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of employment,
education, and the economy. deLaski shows that we are on the cusp of a Great College
Reset in which workforce training, college, and corporate training become more
interchangeable—requiring unprecedented coordination between public, private,
and educational institutions and new ways of thinking about the future of work.
In the
wake of declining US university enrollment and widespread crises of confidence
in the value of a college degree, deLaski urges a mindset shift regarding
the learning routes and credentials that best prepare students for success
after high school.
“Can the four-year degree be
saved? Not for most learners, I would argue,” says deLaski. “The
percentage of adults who believe college is not worth the cost has surged from
42% to 56% in the last decade, and a striking 62% say they prefer short-term
skills training and non-degree credentials over traditional degree
programs.”
deLaski’s book draws on a decade of design-thinking research from the nonprofit
Education Design Lab as well as 150 interviews of educational experts, college
and career counselors, teachers, employers, and learners.
She
urges institutions to better attend to the needs of new-majority learners,
often described as nontraditional students, including people from low- or
moderate-income backgrounds, people of color, first-generation students,
veterans, single mothers, rural students, part-time attendees, and
neurodivergent students.
Fortunately,
she finds ample opportunities for colleges to support learners via alternative
pathways to marketable knowledge, including bootcamps, skills-based learning,
and apprenticeships, career training, and other types of workplace learning.
Within the book, deLaski covers:
The historical context of college
degrees and how their perceived value is changing in today's economy—which jobs still
need a degree? Which ones don’t? Which industries are making the move?
Proven alternate pathways to success, including blue- and white-collar
apprenticeships and motivated self-starters who use YouTube, Reddit, and
webinars to learn valuable coding or marketing skills.
Ten design principles to redefine
college as a place
where workforce training, corporate education, and traditional college paths
merge and make a flexible and inclusive system for today’s learners.
Kathleen deLaski
deLaski shares these additional insights with us:
Question: Can the four-year degree be
saved?
DeLaski: Not for most learners, I would
argue. Once less expensive alternative pathways become clearer and surer, a
full-on degree will seem impractical for new majority learners. And the new
majority learners are, by definition, most learners. The four-year degree has
been the market signal we’ve led with for almost four hundred years in this
country. But why does the degree have to be the only product that colleges
sell? And why can’t the American Dream be achieved by other college products,
other constructs of career preparation or adultification?
Question: How do you define
“new-majority learners,” and why is it crucial for educational institutions to
focus on their needs?
deLaski: New majority learners is a 21st
century way to describe all the types of students for whom college was not
designed. And today these students comprise a majority of higher education
learners. These are students who not so long ago were excluded from college
altogether and who even now find the barriers to success are strong. Some of
these groups include Black and brown students, Indigenous students, single
parents, students who come from poverty, or live with a disability. They
include English language learners, veterans, and anyone
who has to work while in college to pay for school.
Question: What is your message to
people who have, for generations, heard that the fastest route to success is a
college degree?
deLaski: The four-year degree is still the
default path for families who are not financially constrained. But that’s fewer
and fewer people. The good news is that in many fields today, like tech,
business, parts of health care, creative arts, you can work your way to
professional success by building experience and getting certifications–often
without going to college.
In the book, I provide four profiles
of learners who can afford to skip the degree, like the Motivated Self-starter
or the Connected Career-Switcher. Succeeding in one of these alternate routes
basically depends on four factors: your bankroll, your network, your
self-motivation, and choosing a field that doesn’t require a degree.
Question: What are some successful
examples of alternative education pathways or nondegree credentials that you
highlight in the book?
deLaski: Colleges, particularly community
colleges, have long offered short-term certificates. And many are now
formalizing “micro-pathways” to ready students for specific job role needs in
their regions. In fact, a million students a year now go to college to obtain
certificates. But these programs, as well as commercially provided bootcamps,
are not usually subsidized by student loans or grants. And they should be. Some
of the best programs are aimed at lower-income learners, such as YearUp and
Merit America. But they rely on employers and philanthropists to fund the
model.
Question: How can colleges and high
schools adapt their structure and curriculum to better align with the evolving
job market?
deLaski: Surveys suggest 52% of students who
do graduate from college are underemployed, meaning they don’t land jobs that
require a degree. Part of it is because employers increasingly say that they
want to hire candidates who have experience. A chicken and egg problem.
So, colleges (and high schools) need
to make it their job to help students gain experience. Apprenticeships,
internships, even simulated work projects will help students cross the
“experience chasm.” This change requires colleges to step up their employer and
community engagement departments. One college, Northeastern University, which
does this well, has 250 internship facilitators.
Question: How can families support
young adults in making informed decisions about their education and career
paths?
deLaski: I never discourage a young person
from attending college if they want that path. If they are feeling ambivalent
or anxious, but college won’t break the family bank, I say give it a try,
you’ll at least learn what you don’t like. For financially constrained
families, I recommend advising your students to earn industry certifications in
high school. One fifth of students in community college today are actually high
school students taking classes. Apprenticeship programs are starting to gain
ground beyond the trades. I profile an insurance company in the book, for example, which
starts its apprentices in high school. And community colleges have many short-term
certificate programs. These are ways to build your earning power as you decide
whether you need more training.
To gain information on the quality of
college programs that are also affordable, I recommend websites such as College
Scorecard.
Question: What challenges do you
anticipate in shifting the perception of higher education from traditional
degrees to skills-based learning?
deLaski: The biggest challenge I worry about
is less about the perception, but what happens to the broader learning that we
lose if our society moves to just-in-time technical skill building.
If my predictions are correct, that by
the mid-century mark only 30% of learners will earn a four-year degree, and
students continue to move away from humanities majors, how will we learn about
critical thinking—still one of the top requested skills by employers globally.
Not to mention civic engagement.
Question: What if colleges, high schools, employers or communities and families
want to explore these issues further in their own context?
deLaski: I’ve provided discussion guides for
each of these groups in the book. And I am available to come to regions to help
facilitate workshops.
___
deLaski is the founder and board chair
of the Education Design Lab, which works with colleges, states, and employers
to design shorter, more targeted forms of higher education.
She also serves as a senior advisor
for Harvard's Project on the Workforce and teaches higher ed redesign at George
Mason University.
Thank you to the book’s publisher for
sending me an advance copy of the book.
