Rick Van Kooten: Universities can help develop talent businesses seek

Indiana’s economy faces a discouraging trend: The state’s employers increasingly seek to hire workers with college degrees, but fewer Hoosiers are choosing to pursue higher education. According to a recent study from Ascend and EmployIndy, the state is seeing “a vastly accelerated and permanent shift toward more highly skilled, highly educated workers coupled with alarming declines in post-secondary enrollment by Indiana residents.”

We must reverse this trend, which couldn’t come at a worse time.

The good news is that Hoosiers considering enrolling in college or university in Indiana are spoiled for choice, with many in-state options to choose from. What factors then are prospective students considering most seriously when it comes to enrolling in college?

My colleagues and I in Indiana University’s College of Arts and Sciences talk daily with prospective students and their families, and their first and biggest consideration is return on investment.

Even with IU’s generous financial aid, MoneySmarts program and lower tuition for in-state students, applicants want to better understand costs—tuition, housing, the possibility of student debt—and, to no surprise, want to know what their job prospects will look like when they graduate. What the data tell us is encouraging: As of December 2021, IU Bloomington’s undergraduates’ career outcomes rate is 95% employed.

Of course, there are plenty of lucrative careers, including in the skilled trades, that don’t require a college degree. Still, hiring managers “are looking for college-educated applicants, especially as jobs that typically don’t require higher education give way to automation,” according to a story in The Indianapolis Star.

This ties into the second-biggest factor for students: options. Students want the freedom to study what they love as a pathway to a fulfilling career and a meaningful life. But young people don’t always know what they want to do for a career, or they might have so many interests that charting a course in life is difficult, if not overwhelming.

Undergraduates seeking admission into the College of Arts and Sciences at IU have the option to choose from more than 80 degree programs across the liberal arts and sciences or major in programs at the Media School; the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies; or the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design. They can also take courses at IU’s other highly ranked professional schools, such as the Kelley School of Business; the School of Public Health; or the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering.

Career preparation should be part of every student’s experience; undergraduates must develop “robot-proof” skills employers value, like critical thinking, analysis and problem-solving, and teamwork. At the college, we created the Walter Center for Career Achievement, which supports students with networking and other marketable skills and provides every college undergraduate their own career coach from the moment they arrive on campus.

The third most important factor for students is community. Crucially, we hear that students want to study, work and live on a campus that is inclusive, whose faculty, students and staff come from a diversity of backgrounds and who reflect the composition of the world they will enter when they graduate—a world they hope to significantly improve.

The fourth factor is the power of connections, or an engaged alumni base. Students have a global network to leverage at every stage of their careers.

Research and our own experience show earning a college degree has significant return on investment in the near and longer terms. Universities can best serve their students by ensuring they are prepared for the economy at graduation, and beyond. Indiana’s economic future depends on it.•

__________

Van Kooten is executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington and a professor of physics.