Value Beyond the Degree: Alumni Perspectives on How College Experiences Improve Their Lives

At a time when public confidence in the value of education is declining and enrollments are decreasing, one group that has a special understanding of the full value of their education is alumni. They have critical insights into how their education experiences have enriched their lives in ways that go beyond dollars and cents.
Join Strada researchers and guest panelists for the release of findings from the 2022 Strada Outcomes Survey, a nationally representative survey of 3,230 bachelor’s-degree holders who completed their undergraduate degrees in the past 20 years. Learn how alumni view the value of education in their lives after graduation - including whether their college experience helped them fulfill their goals, whether it was worth the cost, and the impact that education has had on their career and life.
The findings are eye-opening: Alumni who developed key skills during college earned about $8,700 more in their first year after graduation than peers who reported low levels of skill development through college. Alumni who developed skills in college are also more likely to report noneconomic benefits.
The webinar panel is moderated by Ruth Watkins, president of Strada Impact and former president of the University of Utah. Strada Managing Director of Research Nichole Torpey-Saboe presents the findings, and the expert panelists joining the discussion are Michael Rao, president of Virginia Commonwealth University; Danita Brown Young, vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and Brandee Popaden-Smith, director of Work + Learn at Arizona State University.
For a generation, America’s primary metrics for evaluating higher education’s success have focused on access and, more recently, completion. Now, as we look to post-completion outcomes, this discussion of learnings from alumni, researchers, and practitioners will provide insights on how to ensure higher education fulfills its promise of full value to all students.
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