WASHINGTON – As the United States continues to slip further from its former No. 1 spot in college degree attainment, the nation must embrace new and innovative ways to provide broader access to post-secondary education and discard the elitist practices that have characterized higher education in America for the past century.
That was the crux of the message delivered by a series of speakers Thursday at a panel discussion titled “Charting the Future of Higher Education.”
The event—funded by the Lumina Foundation and hosted by Education Sector, an independent policy analysis organization and think tank in Washington—is the capstone of the release of a college rankings guide published each September by Washington Monthly magazine.
As in the past, Thursday’s panel discussion featured higher education movers and shakers who were featured in Washington Monthly’s college rankings guide, which was created largely as the antithesis to the college rankings guide published each fall by U.S. News & World Report.
For instance, whereas the U.S. News’ rankings focus on things like selectivity, Washington Monthly’s rankings focus on social mobility or, more specifically, how many Pell Grant-eligible students earn a college degree, largely seen as a ticket to the middle class.
“The traditional approach to rankings is driving too much of what’s wrong, things such as increased selectivity and marketing,” Lumina Foundation President and CEO Jamie P. Merisotis said in his welcoming remarks.
Lamenting America’s slippage from its former superior rank in college degree attainment, as noted in a recent OECD report that now ranks the nation as 15th out of 34 OECD countries in tertiary attainment among 25- to 34-year-olds, a few spots lower than in years past, Merisotis called for more to be done to find ways to broaden access to higher education.
