SALT LAKE CITY — Reimagining Utah’s systems of higher education and technical colleges could look like this: a single governing board and chancellor that oversees all state colleges.
Another recommendation by the Colorado-based National Center for Higher Education Management Systems suggests a stand-alone community college to serve Utah County, which would drastically alter Utah Valley University’s role as a dual-mission institution.
The center notes that students who earn associate degrees at dual-mission institutions experience unusually high costs.
Draft recommendations also envision prohibiting UVU from engaging in basic research, education at the doctoral level, or establishing schools of medicine, law, pharmacy, etc.
Representatives of the center presented their draft findings and recommendations Tuesday to the Utah Legislature’s Higher Education Strategic Planning Commission, which also included observations of the state’s respective systems and suggested goals.
Brian Prescott, vice president of the national center, told commission members that Utah has much work to do to address low college-going rates.
Wages may play a role, he said.
“We see, weirdly in Utah, this relatively low wage premium for post-secondary degrees, so getting additional education and training doesn’t pay off the same way it does elsewhere in the nation,” Prescott said.
One of the most significant factors for the system, Prescott said, is addressing “rapid but concentrated growth” in Utah County. “The real dilemma on capacity needs is in Utah County,” he said.
The national center’s draft recommendations also ask whether state’s goal that 66% of Utahns age 25 to 64 have a degree or post-secondary certificate by 2025 should be revisited by the commission. One option to consider is bolstering support for the initiative by establishing the goal in state statute and establishing a branding campaign.
The goal was first articulated by Gov. Gary Herbert in 2013 and was further refined by the Utah State Board of Regents.
The attainment goal “is not part of the dialogue right now. There’s no larger agenda and there’s no entity to sort of carry the flag for that statewide view. Quite often it becomes the Legislature’s assumed responsibility to sort out some of the conflicts that creates. With all due to our co-chairs and other legislators in the room, they have lots of other things to pay attention to,” Prescott said.
Prescott lifted up as a bright spot a partnership between Southern Utah University and Southwest Technical College, which enables students to earn university credit and enroll in SUU courses. Participating SUU students can be admitted to Southwest Tech and enroll in its certificate programs.
The recommendations say flexible delivery of post-secondary education should be a priority to address capacity needs in Utah County, meet rural Utah’s specific needs and improve system efficiency for all students.
The center’s report also notes large gaps in post-secondary attainment among students who are race and ethnic minorities.
Other recommendations include placing in state statute goals on meeting employers’ workforce needs, addressing participation and completion of rural residents, and establishing an affordability standard, among others.
House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, who is co-chairman of the legislative commission, said Utah’s anticipated population growth “is a tremendous opportunity for us.”
The higher education commission can chart how to better serve Utah’s post-secondary students for the coming decades, he said
“Our challenge is how do we make it better,” Wilson said.
Commission co-chairwoman Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, said the center’s findings “give us a starting place for discussion.”
Harris Simmons, chairman of the Utah State Board of Regents, said the commission needs to concentrate on minority populations that struggle to access higher education or complete degrees.
As the percentage of race and ethnic minority populations continues to grow in Utah, the academic success of those populations “has the potential to make or break our state,” Simmons said.