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Staff writers at OnlineUniversities.com have compiled a list that is very useful as a somewhat focused environmental scan. One of the fifteen suggestions is to essentially create nutrition label equivalents for majors: Nutrition facts for majors (This link goes to a fascinating blog post about college costs and what a set of nutritional facts might look like for an unnamed private university in California, using information scrabbled together from various websites.)

Restaurants often show calorie counts on their menus, and some experts recommend that programs of study do the same. With a transparent explanation of tuition, fees, salary, student loan payments, and job market prospects, students can have a better idea of what they’re getting into if they choose to pursue a degree that does not fill the need for a high-demand industry.

Jerry Bowyer has a fairly pronounced point of view regarding a bubble phase in higher education and thinks that, from a financial perspective, college education may not be "worth it." It's best to read some of what folks like this are writing about, if only because of who else is reading them. It's the first time we have seen what we consider to be a value of an education (that it can't be taken away) described as a negative (that also means you can't sell it to someone else, used):

And things are only going to get worse. To call the policy drift of the Obama administration pro-college is an understatement. College is becoming the new high school, and the recent nationalization of secondary education financing affords a policy lever through which capital can be shoe-horned toward the only industry in which our president worked for an appreciable span of his life.

Progressivity of income tax rates only shrinks the College E differential. And, most troubling of all, so far the data on the current recovery indicate that a college degree is dropping in employment value relative to the alternative. Perhaps the alleged intangible benefits of a degree--status, socialization and sophistication--can outweigh the increasingly heavy costs, but taken as an economic proposition, a college degree is looking more and more like Nasdaq circa 1999, or Nevada housing circa 2007. Caveat emptor.

An education panel in Utah, sets a goal for 66 percent of Utah residents to hold at least a postsecondary certificate by 2020 - that's the percentage of jobs in that state that are expected to require such credentialing by that time. Here's a Salt Lake Tribune article about that, and here is another - from two days later - that take a look a enrollments and retention in Utah.

The commission, which includes education leaders, lawmakers and members of Utah’s business community, approved that goal Tuesday after months of work. State Superintendent Larry Shumway said about 35 percent of Utah adults now have postsecondary degrees and about 10 to 15 percent have certificates, earned through training in areas such as diesel mechanics or medical assistance.

“We believe it’s an attainable goal without a huge investment,” said William Sederburg, Utah’s commissioner of higher education and a commission member. “We, frankly, don’t have a choice not to do it. If we don’t try to meet these needs, Utah is going to slide down. The economy is going to demand we step up and do this … .”

and

It’s a watershed moment for the institution and our role within the state system,” said a statement from UVU President Matthew Holland. “These numbers bear out what we’ve been feeling for a long time. UVU offers a uniquely attractive educational option for students from Utah Valley and from around the state. The big story is that they are staying. Our biggest jumps come in our junior and senior class.”

Mark Milliron, now with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, once again wowed a SCUP plenary audience on Monday morning. We are grateful that he is sharing his slide show (available only temporarily without password protection). And we have a brief YouTube video of part of his presentation (below). Enjoy! We did.