Demand and Supply - Herman Berliner, Inside Higher Ed

The 2010 Georgetown University Center for Education and the Workforce study of “Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018” concluded that “by 2018 we will need 22 million new college degrees- but will fall short of that number by at least 3 million postsecondary degrees, Associate or better.” Furthermore, the report states “we will need at least 4.7 million new workers with postsecondary certificates. “ The report comes to two other conclusions, all conclusions that will not surprise the higher education community. First, the report notes that “between 1973 and 2008, the share of jobs in the U.S. economy which required postsecondary education increased from 28 percent to 59 percent. And second that “as the economy evolved, postsecondary education gradually became the threshold requirement for access to middle class status and earnings.” But there is a fundamental disconnect between the increasing need for higher education credentials and the support by government of students pursuing this education. Be it on the graduate level or on the undergraduate level, financial support for students as well as for institutions is declining.