Will FAFSA Spark A Rethink? Design Challenges and Affordable Degrees

The FAFSA chaos is driving anticipated significant decreases in fall college and university enrollment. I would like to see it be a wakeup call for post secondary institutions to reinvent their business models.

Brandon Busteed wrote an outstanding profile in Forbes in the fall that feels all the more relevant now. (link in comments)

Brandon describes the “Greatest Degree Program Ever” - an Online Master of Science in Computer Science at Georgia Institute of Technology. The stats:
▶ $7,000 for the entire degree (all in!)
▶ 12,000 students currently enrolled. Over 10 years the program has over 8,600 alumni.
▶ 96% of alumni would recommend the program to others.
▶ More than 80% of alumni said it aided their career progression - 55% started new jobs since completing their degree and 38% were promoted at their current workplace.

The above is impressive but the more exciting piece is it’s replicable. Brandon breaks down the recipe for highly effective programs like this:

𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗲:
1️⃣ 𝘈 𝘵𝘰𝘱 50-𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥 - I’d broaden this to a trusted post-secondary brand as I think it can and should be applied beyond just the most elite 50 institutions.
2️⃣ 𝘈 𝘥𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦-𝘩𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 - new examples might be AI, cyber, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare.
3️⃣ 𝘈 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘳𝘶𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 - the Georgia Tech masters tuition is 85% less than what I paid 20 years ago!
4️⃣ 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘢𝘫𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘳 - connecting college and career.

𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
What I found most inspirational and actionable is how this began - a design challenge to faculty to build a masters program with tuition of $1,000 - ideas generated by the actual practitioners with a clear cost constraint.

Many years ago I worked for a leadership school running semester length programs for college students. In 2013 I was inspired by a conversation with Marc Randolph that the school needed to create Toyota Corolla products (high quality + cheap) and less Lexuses (high cost and luxury). That same year we ran our own design challenge - build a semester experience equal in price to the local in-state university semester tuition.

The result the following year - 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁.

So how about it post-secondary institutions!?! I would love to see a renaissance of design challenges…and let’s see some challenging and disruptive price constraints!

(And we here at Next Campus can help you do this.)