Surveys continue to show rising conerns about whether a college degree is worth the cost. Private universities with ridiculously high sticker prices face the sharpest skepticism. With few exceptions, their efforts to counter the doubts and cautions are to make expensive marketing appeals about their idyllic campus traditions and stellar reputations.
The irony is that nearly all of these universities have on their campuses a school, college or division of professional & continuing education that doesn’t rely on reputation and residential experiences to attract enrollments and drive revenues. Non-traditional students attending universities through PCE units are paying with their own money or an employer's tuition benefit, and they expect direct, demonstrable connections between program and career outcomes, not climbing walls in gyms and mediocre Division I sports. PCE divisions have built the habit of proving the value of a university credential up front.
Private universities (particularly mid-tier tuition dependent privates) should be asking their PCE units to measure "time to value" for all market-sensitive PCE-run degree programs, non-credit certificates and alternative credentials, track how quickly learners who successfully complete these programs reach a meaningful salary increase or career transition, and publish that data alongside the university’s traditional admissions materials for full-time students. Make measurable, near-term career outcomes as visible as rankings to reclaim, through your PCE offerings, some of the ROI that your traditional on-campus degrees are struggled to prove.
Recovering public confidence in college degrees requires evidence. PCE units already collect and act on that kind of evidence because their students demand it. Private universities that lean on their PCE units to bring the same rigor to their broader value proposition will have a stronger case to make to skeptical families than those relying on brand history alone.
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