Colleges Benefiting Individuals and Society

There is much criticism of higher education these days, from tuition costs to ideological indoctrination. In this atmosphere it’s good to be reminded of its mission and its accomplishments.

In the US, we are blessed with an ecosystem of over 4,000 community colleges, small private colleges, state university systems, land grant institutions, state flagship research universities, and private research universities. How do they benefit the society? How do they benefit individual students? Every once in a while, it’s good to remind ourselves of answers to those questions.

With a focus on society, universities are engines of transformation. For example, it is easy to draw direct ties between university research and development and the internet with its fundamental alteration of the global economy. Universities tend to provide the basic research discoveries that permit the private sector to innovate years later.

Health care improvements depend on university-based biomedical research. Basic engineering research is key to advanced computer hardware. Creativity in the arts help interpret the new realities and help form cohesive cultures in society. The social sciences inform how norms and policies affect the experiences of different groups. The humanities continuously offer new perspectives on key societal concerns. All told, the thought leadership from universities is fundamental to the improvement of lives of all persons.

Colleges and universities are often the largest employer in their area; they are anchor institutions for the region. Private sector firms choose to locate near universities to attract talent. Universities thus strengthen the local economy. They are also key to supplying the local community with cultural events and arts. Their faculty are active in public scholarship addressing the needs of the local community. At Georgetown, our ongoing social justice activities act to build community. In short, universities enrich the quality of life of their locales. They produce collective goods, not just individual goods.

Turning to the individual, life-time earnings of college graduates exceed those of nongraduates. Universities giving access to students from poor families become the most potent vehicle for social mobility in the society.

The career trajectories of graduates are more robust to disruptions that may affect an industry. College graduates are more active in civic institutions; they vote at higher rates; they are more informed about current societal issues. They tend to be healthier, live longer, with fewer comorbidities. They build more stable marital and family relationships. They have lower divorce rates, lower suicide rates, lower so-called “deaths of despair.” In short, college graduates live better lives.

The traditional residential college experience tends to give graduates other individual benefits. They expose the young person to different groups of people, different ways of thinking, different cultures, and different life experiences. This exposure to differences is for many a first introduction to an uncomfortable part of all adults’ lives – the needed capacity to interact successfully with those who disagree with you or have different perspectives.

These exposures, however, in college have the safety net of the mentoring of faculty and student affairs professionals. Group-based learning enhances the likelihood of these exposures. The learning from these encounters are key to developing critical thinking skills. They nurture the ability to see the complexity of issues. They foster skills in finding compromises that lead to consensus solutions where once there was conflict. College graduates are thus more likely to avoid extreme postures on civic issues.

The college experience also hones what academics call “research skills.” Research often involves posing an unanswered question. The job is to acquire pre-existing knowledge about the question by searching past works or to make novel observations. The work is often unstructured. The student must create ways to navigate the unknown. They are forced to evaluate alternative perspectives and discern the strengths and weaknesses of each. Success is defined by finding a preferred answer to the question. Since dissemination is part of the research protocol, students develop writing skills, expressing their findings in words and/or displays (including paintings, sculptures, performances).

Many of these capacities are transferable across fields. So, when the college graduate experiences a change in career, either by choice or by disruption of their current occupation, these skills permit the person to self-teach to prepare for their next career opportunity. The college experience breeds resilience.

There are few institutions in society that provide such a wide variety of benefits. Over the past century, the US has built the most powerful system of higher education in the world. We are privileged.