Make Minnesota higher education valuable, not cheap

Our state's economic engine is beginning to sputter. Every business, government and nonprofit in our state is facing a talent shortage. Our higher education institutions are not delivering either the quantity or the quality of the talent we need. Too many students don't graduate, and too many graduates are not really ready for the world of work.

The candidates for governor are "admiring" the problem without concrete solutions. The University of Minnesota is looking for a new president and Minnesota State (MnSCU) will be looking again for a new chancellor in the next couple of years. In a month we'll elect a new governor. It's time to change the debate.

For the most part, what passes for a debate on higher education has revolved around making it cheaper. Every year the higher-ed leaders come to the governor and Legislature and say, in effect, give us more money and we can keep tuition low.

Instead of aiming to cheapen higher education, we should be aiming aim to make it more valuable — to students, to the employers who will hire them and to the state. Here are four ways we could make a Minnesota higher-ed diploma more valuable without spending a lot more money:

1) Make a Minnesota higher-ed diploma a certification that students possess specific skills, competencies and capabilities — and offer a guarantee to any employer that higher ed will re-educate grads who don't possess them.

Transform the diploma into an inventory of skills, designed to be valuable to employers — including both hard capabilities (technical or professional) as well as soft skills (like problem-solving and teamwork). For example, rather than handing out a B.A. with a major in marketing, make it a B.A. with certified skills in direct marketing, digital marketing, marketing strategy and teamwork. These certifications — and the guarantee — would make a Minnesota diploma uniquely valuable in the marketplace.

2) Evergreen the diploma. Make graduation a milestone, not an end point. A diploma represents learning up to a point in time. Given the rate of change, most of what students learn becomes obsolete within five years. Make a Minnesota higher-ed diploma one in which competencies are regularly updated and certified as such. This will give the diploma lasting and increasing value to both the graduate and the employer. Evergreening could be done in class, online, through weeklong intensives, on weekends, etc.

Through this effort, Minnesota higher ed could also evolve to become the most effective provider of customized development programs for employers. This could include the creation of industry- or even company-specific degree or certification programs.

3) Make a Minnesota higher-ed "Career Builder" app a part of the diploma. Provide students and employers with an app-based road map to career opportunities linked to their skills. The same competencies and certifications can be utilized in many jobs and many industries. Today, graduates and employers often have tunnel vision when it comes to fully utilizing people's strengths. The app would create road maps showing students and employers the range of careers that graduates could pursue and the next steps they would need to take, and it would track their progress. The app could do the same thing for alumni — and support the evergreening of their diplomas. Finally, the app could provide employers with valuable information on how best to utilize their existing talent.

4) Use the state's money to buy critical skills, not just to buy down tuition. If low tuition is all the state gets for its money, it is not getting a good deal. The state faces critical shortages of teachers, nurses, skilled trades and more. Today, the higher-ed institutions get a lump sum from the state and they decide how to use it. Rather than a lump sum, the state should use its money to buy the skills it needs. It would do this by entering into performance contracts with higher-ed institutions.

For example, a contract for teachers could, say, deliver a specific number of teachers, with these specific skills, who can perform at this specific level in our state's classrooms, and we will pay you this specific amount. Doing so would not require any more money, just targeting and expecting more from the money we are already spending.

Higher education is the economic engine of our state. If it is sputtering, our state's economic prospects will suffer. We don't need to rebuild that engine so much as tune it up to deliver higher performance with the resources we already have. That should be job No. 1 for our new state and higher-education leaders.