"A recent study found that about a third of federal Pell Grant and student loan funding supports degree programs that do not pay off for graduates in terms of earnings. When factoring in students' counterfactual earnings, undergraduate majors in visual and performing arts typically leave students financially worse off than if they never went to college."
"The insistence that higher education is ineffective and too expensive is underscored by the fact that health care, STEM, and business programs wind up on top as the most lucrative degrees to pursue, while programs in religious and cultural studies, education, public service, and especially the arts represent the most precarious degrees."
"A proposed rule related to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act outlines a new accountability framework that ties programs' future eligibility for federal student aid to graduates' average earning outcomes, raising concerns for programs that do not demonstrate financial success."
A study reveals significant disparities in returns on investment for graduate degrees, particularly highlighting that many programs, especially in the arts, do not yield financial benefits. Approximately one-third of federal funding supports degrees that fail to enhance earnings. The focus on job placement and earnings detracts from assessing educational quality. Programs in health care, STEM, and business are the most lucrative, while those in arts and public service face potential loss of federal aid due to new accountability measures linking aid eligibility to graduates' earnings.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
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