There are many articles lately talking about career opportunities one can have without a four-year college degree. Many fields in STEM rely not just on graduates of doctoral, masters and baccalaureate programs but teams of workers trained in technical schools with two-year degrees.
While this can all be true, the numbers offered can often be misleading. Telling an 18-year-old how much she might earn in one year or one hour based on what degree a worker holds gives a very incomplete picture of lifetime income. Over a working life of 40 to 50 years, what you might earn five years from now is only one part of story.
New studies and datasets show that a traditional education that leads to a bachelor’s degree over one’s working life can still yield higher lifetime income. Particularly when analytical and scientific skills are paired with communication and creative skills, the returns to education last years and years after graduation.
Consider the following evidence:
Georgetown University’s Center for Education and the Workforce recently calculated return on investment for over 4,500 colleges and universities across the nation. They conclude that two-year programs “have the highest returns in the short term, 10 years after enrollment, though returns from bachelor’s degrees eventually overtake those of most two-year credentials.”
Research by David Deming and associates at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University demonstrates that returns to a four-year degree in applied sciences have the highest value in the first few years after graduation, but over half of its earning differential disappears after 15 years. He wrote recently in the New York Times, “Help-wanted ads for jobs like software developer and engineer were more likely to ask for skills that didn’t exist a decade earlier. And the jobs of 10 years ago often required skills that have since become obsolete. Skill turnover was much higher in STEM fields than in other occupations.” These same observations apply to the technical fields in our two-year schools.
Last April, Burning Glass Technology looked at over 22 million online job openings at various levels of employment and found as one went up the corporate ladder the skills that hiring officers valued most were not digital skills but human ones like “critical thinking, creativity, communication, analytical skills, collaboration, and relationship building.” Of senior management positions, 62% required at least one of these human skills, compared with 39% for business skills like project management or 16% for data analytical skills.
Here at St. Cloud State many students who study in a traditional liberal arts discipline end up in well-paying careers that have longevity. We gathered a file of 7,239 alumni of the School of Public Affairs and the College of Liberal Arts and their predecessors between 2004-18 and collected their job titles from surveys and social media. This separates most of the STEM departments as well as our traditional professional schools. The sample contains 913 (13%) educators at the secondary or college level. Another 171 are analysts in some area of part of the economy. Nine are already presidents or vice presidents (remember that the vast majority of these graduates are still under 40) while another 490 have “manager” in their job title and 137 report as administrators or their assistants. Remarkably, 194 have the word “technical” or “technology” in their titles and 25 are engineers. These numbers are just a sample of the great careers launched in the liberal arts.
Please do not take from this discussion that we are championing solely a liberal arts degree. The best-paying jobs and quickest returns on investment really are in STEM when paired with something in the humanities. And the returns last longer too. But the point made is that beyond providing the skills that those in STEM need to succeed in their fields, more traditional liberal education is a launch pad for many in the STEM fields. We have found this works better when students have STEM and liberal education integrated intentionally by a university’s curriculum.
Not every graduating high school senior should start a four-year university right away. And associate degrees and alternative certificates can get someone quickly into a middle-class income, which for some is necessary to meet immediate needs. But popular views about the benefits of university have always swung from oversold to underbought throughout the 20th Century, and we believe the 21st Century is no different. Looking for a happy medium by talking to employers, counselors, financial advisors and parents is the best advice we can give.
King Banaian is an economist and dean of the School of Public Affairs at St. Cloud State University. Michelle Schmitz is executive director of the Career Center at St. Cloud State.
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August 06, 2020 at 12:53PM
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Banaian, Schmitz: Are 4-year degrees oversold? Not at all, even in the liberal arts - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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