Redefining ‘Value’ in Higher Education

Inside Higher Ed

Scott Jaschik

May 12, 2021

When the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the Postsecondary Value Commission two years ago, the foundation’s leaders were thinking about ways to measure economic outcomes for students earning certificates and degrees — outcomes that could include postcollegiate earnings and the ability to repay debt, earnings premiums for degree earners or certificate earners, and economic mobility after college.

The 115-page report being released today is consistent with those goals. It calls for the release of more information to help students make better choices about where to go to college, eliminating “completion gaps” and “removing affordability as an impediment to postsecondary value.” (Inside Higher Ed received financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for coverage of the foundation’s report on the value of higher education. Inside Higher Ed maintains editorial independence and full control over the content.)

But much has changed in the past two years, and the report also reflects current socioeconomic realities, including the murder of George Floyd and the inequalities of COVID-19.

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