Forty-one percent of master’s degree programs would not pass a debt-to-earnings test created by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. And only 14% of master’s programs provided its graduates with median earnings at least 5% above those with a bachelor’s degree in the same field of study and state.
Loan borrowers who’ve borrowed money for graduate and professional studies are also more likely to come from marginalized backgrounds.
“Due to scientific and technological advancements, the economy of the future will increasingly require professionals with advanced degrees, but graduate costs have increased 233% since 2000,” Jeff Strohl, center director and report co-author, said in a press release. “The current trajectories of cost and debt put graduate education out of reach for too many students.”
How would your graduate degree programs change under new policy?
To stem the tide of grad students leaving school with substantial debt, the renowned research and policy institute has developed a new policy framework modeled by recent regulations from the Department of Education: gainful employment and financial value transparency.
Here’s what the center proposes:
- Graduate degree programs must pass the center’s debt-to-earnings and in-field-earnings premium test.
- Programs would be required to notify potential students of their performance.
- Those that fail two out of three academic years would become ineligible for offering Grad PLUS loans to students.
- Smaller programs lacking sufficient data for the center’s two tests should be issued a “pass” or “fail” designation.
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“Students and taxpayers invest staggering amounts of money in higher education, raising important questions about program value,” said Kelly McManus, vice president of higher education at Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy.
How a ‘double Pell’ can erase the student debt gap
Another public policy advocate has recently issued guidelines for helping erase students’ burdensome debt. The Institute for College Access & Success, along with the University of California, Merced, is proposing the Supplemental Wealth-Based Pell Grant as an extra federal aid package for students hailing from families with less than $500 in generational wealth derived from family savings, investments and real estate. The classic Pell Grant, on the other hand, only measures family income.
The report’s analysis posits that a “double Pell” would allow one million more full-time students—including nearly two-thirds of Black students—to attend college debt-free in their first year.
