New Reports Explore How U.S. Can Support Innovative New Models of Higher Education

NEW YORK, NY — As college tuition costs rise and about 40% of students fail to graduate in six years, many entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and policymakers are considering how to support innovative approaches to higher education while protecting students and taxpayers. In five new reports in the Manhattan Institute’s “Solutions from Beyond the Beltway” series, researchers and practitioners present proposals for how the U.S. can use these nontraditional programs to provide pathways to stable employment in a changing economy.

In his report, Make School founder Ashutosh Desai argues that we should shift our policy focus from funding and access to program delivery and the link between learning objectives and career success. He suggests that reform attempts should be focused on the career outcomes that various forms of higher education produce.

Considering the growing importance of nontraditional education, Nathan Arnold, Jessica Morales, and Bethan Little (all of EducationCounsel LLC) describe how federal aid might be extended to programs like coding boot camps. Within the traditional higher education sector, Trace Urdan (Tyton Partners) and Preston Cooper (George Mason University Ph.D. student) explore why public universities have failed to take full advantage of online learning, and how they can catch up and become leaders in this growing space.

Digging deeper into what nontraditional options could look like, Gretchen Morgan of the Center for Innovation in Education examines what the U.S. can learn from the Swiss apprenticeship system—one of the best in the world, feeding their innovative economy and low youth unemployment rate. Applying a similar approach to the U.S. context, Michelle R. Weise and Janet Salm (both of Strada Institute for the Future of Work) discuss “on-ramps,” which combine training with a network of intermediaries who can help identify opportunities and provide a direct path to employment. Their report recommends how employers can support the development and growth of these on-ramps to good jobs and the importance of scaling up these programs to serve millions of Americans currently falling behind.