Three Ways Colleges Can Use Higher Ed Value Metrics

Since Third Way launched our Price-to-Earnings Premium analysis and accompanying Economic Mobility Index to measure the ROI offered by colleges, we’ve had the opportunity to connect with and receive feedback from various institutions of higher education about how they use and supplement the metrics to strengthen their programs and bring new data to bear in strategic planning. A key theme emerging from those conversations is that these metrics can help institutions share their impact effectively with key stakeholders and calibrate credential offerings to deliver high-value programs that meet students’ needs. Here are three ways colleges can use Third Way’s higher ed value metrics for continuous improvement:

1. Assess value proposition and resource allocation

At the institution level, our metrics offer college administrators a 30,000-foot view of the economic value of their degrees. This can also be useful in gauging competitive advantage relative to similar institutions. Significant variation in the amount of time it takes students to recoup their costs at one college versus a nearby or peer institution indicates a gap in costs, post-college earnings, or both. If students from your institution are taking longer on average to see a return on their investment than the institutions you are likely competing with for applicants, understanding that gap can help you better assess your strategic positioning and set attainable institutional goals—and closing it can help improve your value proposition, yield, and bottom line. Comparisons between the PEP value for all students at an institution and the PEP value for low-income students can also be eye-opening. Results showing that your low-income students are experiencing weaker or slower ROI than the median student can illuminate a need to allocate more resources toward bolstering supports for students with high financial need.

And if your PEP and EMI results show your institution is consistently delivering quick and strong returns on student investment and boosting students’ economic mobility… tell them! Each year when we put out new data, we see more and more high-performing schools taking advantage of the unique opportunity to contextualize their numbers with their ongoing efforts to serve students well by issuing press releases about their rating and sharing the news with local press outlets to garner media features. So many colleges across the country are doing outstanding work to help students succeed in and beyond their postsecondary journey, and that’s cause for celebration!

2. Evaluate credential offerings and pathways

Digging into PEP data at the program level sheds light on the returns associated with specific degrees and fields of study, allowing for a more granular assessment of which programs are paying off quickly for students and which are falling short. These insights can reveal interesting patterns and provoke important questions about program viability and support. Consider the case of an institution where two programs at the same credential level in related fields, like different allied health bachelor’s degree programs, have notably varied student outcomes; or the case of an institution where every allied health program is delivering strong returns but few teacher education programs can say the same. Several questions emerge: Is demand in the local job market greater for certain allied health programs than others? Are current offerings and curricula aligned with workforce needs, or are adjustments needed? Are costs for teacher education programs too high relative to school salaries? Are strong workforce partnerships and career pathways in place to smooth transitions from college into relevant job opportunities? The metrics don’t have all the answers—but they can help spark the questions needed for program improvement and planning.

We sometimes hear from colleges that their internal data would allow them to construct a more fulsome program-level PEP assessment than we build out from federal data sources. That is most certainly true—and we hope colleges will use our work as a springboard to create their own datasets! Federal data are limited in scope, and privacy suppressions for smaller programs pose constraints to calculating a PEP value for every college program. Colleges can replicate or build on our formulas using their own institutional data to assess all their programs (and our team is always happy to assist).

3. Make the case for high-impact programs

College leaders are the chief advocates for their institution at the statehouse, to their members of Congress, and with boards of trustees, donors, accreditors, and workforce boards (and the list goes on). PEP and EMI data offer additional tools to draw on in conversations with key stakeholders, especially when advocating for support for programs demonstrating high ROI and negotiating approvals for new in-demand offerings. One institutional research director told us they give these data points to their college president to take to meetings with their regional workforce development board to show where demand for jobs is (or isn’t) lining up with earnings outcomes for corresponding academic programs. A department head shared that they’ve used PEP measures to showcase high-ROI programs to attract internship partners and secure additional scholarship funding. We know that behind every data point is a person—and in this case, a student, a school, and their stories. Leveraging these data offer many avenues to tell those stories, celebrate successes, and lay the groundwork for further impact.