American Council on Education Higher Education Statistics

TheBizofKnowledge ^ | June 11, 2006 | Dr. Bill Belew

[G. Stolyarov II]

The American Council on Education is a coordinating body for higher education. Recently it released some interesting statistics - interesting to people who care about higher education, non-profit and fopro alike.

Just one in six of the undergraduates in college are the "typical" 18-year-old who lives on campus and gets a BA by cramming 4 years into five.

Students who are 25 years old and up account for almost 40 percent of undergraduates.

More than half of all the older students attend a community college - 29 percent are in private schools, and 12 percent attend fopros.

Most of the students are part-time.

There are an estimated 90 million students in post-high-school classes. Many of them are taking basic adult education classes - English as a second language, classes to help them with their work, and personal development.

Less than 10 percent are taking classes for credit at colleges. That seems to make the whole accreditation debate a moot point, no?

What these adults want is a better job and to be able to do their job better. They don't care about the accreditation as long as they are learning and improving.

What do you think?

[G. Stolyarov II]

The fact that many of the older college students simply do not care about receiving formal credit for what they learn suggests that they are interested in the *skills qua skills,* not whether their employers even know that they have the skills; that is, they are looking for education to directly increase their job performance, as opposed to having their employers recognize their formal credentials and thus favor them in the hiring process. This is a most interesting mindset which suggests a view of education as *directly* relevant to workplace success. See Dr. Belew’s blog at TheBizofKnowledge