Op Ed: Response to Representative Virginia Foxx’s Challenge to Higher Ed Institutions

“For [Representative] Foxx, holding colleges and universities accountable means requiring institutions to give students and parents more information up front about the cost of attendance, graduation rates, job prospects and earnings.” - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Foxx, Inside Higher Ed, March 9, 2023

Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, has come out swinging, and higher ed institutions would do well to sit up and listen. Afterall, she’s echoing the demands of the public. High school graduates are eyeing college warily, seeing as graduates just four years ahead of them are emerging with an average student loan debt load of $37,787 (EducationData.org. "Student Loan Debt Statistics, 2022). Recent grads are scrambling to land jobs before the impending recession hits, and parents are lamenting the escalating costs. 

All this results in pressure on higher ed institutions. Prospective students want evidence that academic programs will prepare them for careers, and not just any occupation. They want to know about salaries, job demand and realistic career path expectations. All of this with good reason. The one-two punch of escalating college costs plus inflation validates Representative Foxx’s statement. Prospective students deserve as much.

Let’s Talk About Higher Ed’s Guarantee Challenge

But here’s the problem: higher ed institutions have historically been reluctant to provide the career guarantee that today’s students are now demanding—and they’ve got equally good reasons for their reticence. 

We all know students are not widgets on an assembly line. Every student is different, both when coming into a program and at the point of completing that program. For a variety of reasons some graduates go on to do amazing things while others are... less spectacular. 

Institutions have historically shied away from providing career outcome data in fear of repercussions from graduates who achieve those “less spectacular” career results.

In some cases, students have won lawsuits based on arguments that colleges or vocational schools convinced them to enroll by being less than honest about:

• The length of time required to complete a course of study
• Assurances that the institution provides expert instruction that meets outside certification or licensure requirements
• The institution’s interest in, and ability to, evaluate a prospective student’s aptitude for program requirements- in essence, prospects’ ability to complete the program
• Promises that the job market provides an abundance of jobs with excellent salaries

Schools of integrity are intentional in addressing each of these concerns, and they generally do not have problems doing so. However, that last element on this list is becoming a real challenge. The customary solution is to avoid providing career outcome information at all, out of fear that providing the data could be misconstrued as a promise. And yet, career data is exactly what today’s prospective students need and demand.

What to Do?

One solution is to ignore these demands altogether. But prospective students, and their parents, and now even government servants like Representative Foxx, are questioning the value of a college education at a far higher rate than before. Recent Gallup polls show that enrollment rates have dropped significantly between 2015-2021, and every forecast you see shows that trend accelerating. If institutions ignore the demand for career information, their chances of losing these prospects skyrockets.

A half-measure solution is to add static content about careers to the institution’s website. The problem with this approach is that the content quickly goes out of date. This strategy requires constant maintenance with very careful validation and citation of sources to avoid making unsupported promises.

Best Practices

The challenge is to both protect the institution from liability and satisfy prospective student’s need for evidence that academic programs will provide the knowledge and credentials needed to open doors to career opportunities. The way to do this is to provide reliable data from a third-party source; a partner company that curates and delivers accurate, validated, frequently updated data. 

Fortunately, there are high-quality external sources of data that can be served to prospective students to mitigate the risk of making promises. The following are reputable data sources that pull careers information from job listings and other reliable sources:

• Lightcast
• Chmura
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• FedScope

These third-party sources provide unbiased, timely careers data, including the level of education  expected for specific job titles. 

Some of these sources even match careers to programs through CIP codes and education requirements as listed in job posts. This makes it easier to map programs to appropriate careers. 

The colleges and universities that are in front of the race are adding dynamic careers data sourced from a third-party. The data updates automatically as the third-party’s database is updated; anywhere from instantaneously to every three or six months. The data remains relevant, and the liability remains with the data provider (that is, assuming the institution doesn’t make outrageous claims). 

So... what’s the best solution? Provide reliable, validated, timely careers data on academic program websites—without making promises. Problem solved.