FutureU hosts Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn talk with Jason Wingard, the president of Temple University and author of “The College Devaluation Crisis.” In their discussion, Wingard describes how college degrees are being devalued and how higher education should better align itself with workforce needs to remain competitive.
“Weare failing with respect to our return on investment, our ROI,” he says. “We are not meeting the needs of industry. And so we are failing our students.” To address this problem, Wingard suggests three solutions: “Number one, institutions need to decide strategically whether their mission going forward is going to be tied to the market valuation of the degree… Second thing is to collect data on what employers need across sectors in terms of skills and competencies… And then in a number three, it’s really taking that gap to the next level is designing the curriculum in appropriate ways.”