Higher Education Expert: The Untapped Potential of the Millions of Americans with Some College, No Degree

For the first time in a decade, college completion is declining. While unprecedented, the development is hardly surprising given the enrollment trends of recent years. Since 2011, enrollment in higher education has fallen by 15%.

While the hardships of COVID-19 account for some of the loss, nearly 60% of the decrease occurred before the pandemic. Overall, there are four million fewer students enrolled in college than a decade ago, with gaps widening along racial and socioeconomic lines. More than half of Americans now say they don't believe college is worth the cost.

With tuition prices continuing to rise and a strong labor market providing the tempting alternative of getting straight to work and earning a paycheck, the feeling is not unfounded. But research shows that college remains one of our nation's surest bets for promoting economic mobility.

High school graduates who do not go to college are still about 40% more likely to be unemployed. They are twice as likely to live in poverty. College graduates earn $1.2 million more over their lifetimes than those who do not have a college degree.

There's a serious cost to higher education's enrollment slide that threatens the economic prosperity of individual learners and the country as a whole. This is doubly true at a time when the national economic outlook is clouded by stubbornly high inflation and interest rates.

Reversing declines in completion isn't as straightforward as reversing declines in first-time enrollment, however. In fact, one of the greatest opportunities for improving degree completion lies in focusing on learners who have already attended college. That's because an astounding number of people who begin a degree program never graduate.

There are more than 39 million Americans who have enrolled in higher education at some point but have no credentials to show for their efforts. Re-enrolling these learners — who are disproportionately Black, Latino, and Native American — and helping them finally obtain credentials of value represents a critical strategy for closing completion gaps.

The good news is that many of these stopped-out students are close to finishing. A recent survey from UPCEA and StraighterLine found that 57% of respondents with some college but no degree were halfway to finishing their degree program by the time they stopped out.

Addressing the reasons why students stop out in the first place is central to any efforts to re-engage learners — and to prevent the same fate from befalling new generations of college-goers. Students cite financial reasons as the main driver behind their decisions to leave college.

For too many learners, the cost of higher education undermines its economic payoff. States, systems, and institutions will need to find innovative ways to make college more affordable. One way to reduce the cost of college for individual learners is to reduce the amount of time they must invest in earning a credential. Embracing approaches like prior learning assessment can ensure students are moving more efficiently through a degree program.

The Vermont State College System, for instance, offers students opportunities to gain credit for the knowledge, skills, and experience they have gained through work, training, and military service (Disclosure: Vermont is a member of the CCA Alliance of States). The approach is an acknowledgment that college-level learning doesn't always happen in the classroom. The system's use of prior learning assessments enables learners to translate their life and career experiences into college credits that count toward their degree requirements.

This is especially valuable for returning students, who may now be several years, or even decades, into their careers.

Cost is just one piece of the puzzle, however. Going back to college can be an intimidating process. Just getting the initial ball rolling on re-enrollment can feel like an insurmountable task.

Returning learners need support to help them better understand the complexities of reconnecting with higher education. Once enrolled, they will need further support that is designed around their unique needs as they balance their renewed academic responsibilities with their existing family and career obligations.

One example of how this can be done is the Tennessee Reconnect initiative, a statewide campaign launched in 2018 that couples public awareness with financial resources and support services to help adult learners navigate the re-enrollment process.

Earlier this year, New Jersey launched its statewide Some College, No Degree initiative, which aims to provide students with resources for navigating not only their return to college but the path to finally earning a degree. Nearly 800,000 New Jersey residents have earned some college credits but have not graduated. (Disclosure: New Jersey is a member of the CCA Alliance of States.)

The initiative brings together New Jersey's Office of the Secretary of Higher Education and 17 of the state's colleges and universities to collaborate on ways to find, connect with, and encourage the re-enrollment and retention of these learners.

In the Golden State, a statewide coalition called California Reconnect led by nonprofit InsideTrack is mobilizing colleges and universities in regions statewide to help reach the more than four million Californians ages 25 to 54 with a high school diploma and some college credit, but no associate's or bachelor's degree (Disclosure: I am a member of the advisory board for InsideTrack). A growing number of states are recognizing the urgent economic imperative of improving degree attainment in the United States.

Reigniting the college-going aspirations of the tens of millions of Americans who have already given higher education a chance will prove critical to accomplishing this goal. It's not enough, however, to just get returning learners through the door. They need intentional support and resources that will follow them all the way through graduation.

And they need to know that the promise of higher education is not only real—but within reach.