Who Wants the Unwashed Masses?

The University of Phoenix Shouldn’t Exist

There is a common story in business circles about the Union Pacific railroad.

When airplanes started, they decided that they were in the railroad business and stuck to that.

If they had a broader view of what they did—that they were in the transportation business—the company would likely look very different than it does today.

An example of a company realizing its larger role is UPS. They were more than just a package delivery firm, they were in the logistics business.

How does this relate to higher education? We have our own train problem:

·      Most people are stuck in the view that college students are 18-22 year-olds that go to a traditional campus.

·      Students, even nontraditional ones, need to come to us. They need to prostrate themselves on campus to get an education. (This one is slowly dying).

·      Outside experience and/or training at work or the military should not count towards a degree competition. And, we will only take some of the classes you try to transfer from other institutions.

·      We do students a favor by letting them in. While important to ensure that students have the capacity to do the work, admission is too often seen as a blessing bestowed upon students. A blessing, mind you, that can be revoked.

·      We schedule classes and support services at times that are convenient for our faculty and staff. (This is especially true for classes with tenured professors.)

We’ll Take Them!

Enter the University of Phoenix. They realized there was a ton of money to be made by helping people hungry to further their education but were not served by traditional colleges and universities or even community colleges.

Where state and non-profit schools were weak, they were strong. Offering credit for work and military experience, holding classes at night and on weekends, and having classes located close to where they worked and lived—making it easier to get an education while juggling work and family responsibilities.

They made their students feel wanted by meeting them where they were. Rather than putting them through opaque, daunting, and often unnecessary bureaucratic hoops just so they can attend.

Yes, their motive was profit.

What if their motive was mission instead?

If those in higher education had a more expansive view of their role, rather than one that was campus bound, the University of Phoenix would not exist. They would have seen a community need and worked to meet it.

Colleges and universities have incredibly smart people on the payroll. If they wanted to figure it out, they would have.

Granted, colleges and universities should not try to be all things to all people. And, some would argue that serving those students is the role of community colleges. That is too easy of an excuse as so many institutions seek to replicate each other and serve traditional students.

We Need You

While some companies have (rightly) been adjusting their hiring requirements to focus on specific skills rather than a bachelor’s degree, we will need people with credentials—certificates, bachelor’s, master’s, and PhDs—to help our knowledge economy to continue to grow and thrive.

In 2021, 37.9% of American adults over the age of 25 had a bachelor’s degree or higher. This is not equal by race. About 61% of the Asian population; 42% of the non-Hispanic White population; 28% of the Black population; and 20.6% of the Hispanic population having a bachelor’s degree or higher.

If we want a stable democracy, we must increase educational attainment for underrepresented groups.  

Where to Start?

Three things:

1)    Higher education leaders need to shift the question from, “What does this institution need to continue to survive, to what can this college or university due to ensure that society thrives?”

2)    Realize that there is a lot of Americans out there with some college but no credential—about 39 million of them as of 2020.

That’s about 22% of U.S. residents over the age of 18.

A lot of colleges and universities struggling because the number of traditional-aged students is declining.

If they could expand their view, they would see there are plenty of people that need what they have to offer.

3)    Public policy, government money, philanthropy, and individual donors should make a concerted effort to support those institutions that do best with first-generation students, students of color, working adults, veterans, and social mobility.  

To put it another way, we need colleges and universities to become obsessed with service and mission more than they are with maintaining the status quo. Then we need to lavishly support those that do.