What is a Higher Education?

“Higher education” generally refers to a non-compulsory education received beyond high school from a college, university, community college, as well as a graduate education or doctoral education in a particular career field. Once all required coursework is completed, a degree, either associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate’s, is awarded. Institutions may offer non-degree certificates to indicate completion of a set of courses in a specific discipline. Some institutions may also partner with a local public school system to allow high school students to take college-level courses while still in high school and earn college credit as well as credit towards the student’s high school diploma. Accreditation agencies ensure that colleges and universities of a certain type are offering and maintaining similar high-quality standards.

Why is Higher Education Important?

A highly-educated workforce is one of Maryland’s greatest assets. With local, state and national economies becoming ever more interconnected, it becomes increasingly necessary for employees to have the knowledge and skills to respond to the ever-changing needs of the global marketplace. A higher education not only provides an individual with the appropriate knowledge and skills, but acquaints them with students from diverse backgrounds with diverse ideas and perspectives that will also be beneficial in their careers.

How has Higher Education Changed Over the Years?

Higher education has become an industry itself. The advent and popularity of the Internet has given rise to for-profit companies offering entirely online degrees. In these programs students do not have to travel to a campus and sit in a lecture hall for class, but can watch lectures on their home computers and submit assignments by email.

Increasingly, institutions that formerly called themselves “colleges” and focused on a certain academic discipline, are diversifying their course offerings to attract more students interested in studying different subjects. Thus, a few institutions in Maryland have changed their names to “university” to reflect this new mission.

With the movement towards offering courses and degrees online and towards offering a larger variety of areas of study, the cost of a higher education became more affordable for the average person. For many years, a college education was something reserved for the gifted or those from wealthy families. Today, higher education institutions offer admission to individuals from all demographic groups as long as they meet certain pre-established academic standards. As a result, more programs offering financial assistance to certain students have been implemented by the institutions, as well as by the federal and state governments.

Methodology & Data Sources

Higher Education Data

Education attainment data for Maryland could only be found for years after 1980. Trends before that are assumed to be the same as 1980 to 1990. Maryland population over 25 was not available for each year from statistical abstracts, but from several national data points the ratio of those over 25 was applied.

Higher Education Value

The social benefits of higher education value of $16,000 was adopted from the national Genuine Program Indicator (GPI) report.

Equation

(Maryland Residents 25 years or older with a bachelor’s degree) Multiplied by $16,000

Points of Contact

Renee Hanson, MHEC