President Harrison Keller participated in a panel discussing the future of higher education last Friday at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.
The panel, titled “Higher Aspirations: How Texas Higher Education is Reinvigorated,” featured Keller and Northwest Vista College President Amy Bosley and Texas Tech University System Chancellor Ted Mitchell.
Panelists discussed topics such as the burden of college tuition, state involvement in higher education, and declining trust in educational institutions such as universities.
According to a 2024 Gallup poll, trust in higher education has declined by 21 percent over the past decade. At the same time, the percentage of people who say they have “little or no trust” in higher education has increased by 22 percent over the same period.
Panel moderator Sarah Hebel, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Open Campus, a national nonprofit that works to “research and improve” higher education, said there could be a variety of reasons why higher education has lost confidence among Americans.
“People believe that universities promote liberal policies, don’t teach the right skills and are simply too expensive,” Hebel said.
A 2018 Pew Research Center poll showed that concerns about professors bringing political views into class vary sharply along party lines, with Republicans being much more concerned than Democrats.
Keller largely avoided talking about politics during the panel, but he maintained that he had “worked pretty closely” with Abbott over the years and praised the job the two had done.
Keller said his biggest concern in higher education is the disconnect between the number of jobs in the post-high school market that require more than a high school diploma and the number of Texans who don’t have that education.
According to the Texas Workforce Commission, 93 percent of new jobs in Texas require “educational training beyond a high school diploma,” the college president said.
“If you want to get a good job, if you want to have a productive career, if you want to live a healthy, productive life, you need education and training beyond a high school diploma,” Keller said.
Keller also noted that only “about half” of Texas’ working-age population has a post-high school credential or degree. The requirement to earn a degree to earn a livable wage can lead to high tuition costs, which is a concern for Bosley and Mitchell and their respective institutions.
Mitchell said Texas Tech is focused on return on investment. Not everyone who graduates from a U.S. college gets a return on investment within 10 years, he said, and that’s a concern.
“McKinsey did an analysis last year looking at colleges and universities across the country,” Mitchell says, “and found that about 64 percent of degrees have a return on investment (ROI) within 10 years, but 36 percent don’t. So, in my opinion, part of our job is to steer students to areas where they’re going to see an ROI.”
Keller agreed with Mitchell, but said the ROI could be increased by using state funds for programs and initiatives at the college’s discretion to help students find employment.
“Innovative community college and university partnerships are receiving more state support than ever before,” Keller said.
At the end of the panel, Hebel asked the panelists what they would see changed in the future if they heard “Texas higher education reinvigorated.” Keller responded that Texas higher education would be reinvigorated through the state legislative session on higher education and would adjust state funding for higher education institutions, including community colleges, to better align with the needs of the schools.
“We’ve made some really significant progress,” Keller said, “and I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done together, and I think the state is poised for us to build on that success and better align state funding with what’s needed for higher education this school year.”
