As the cost of college rises, and students go deeper into debt to finance it, families are increasingly asking whether higher education is worth the pricetag. A new commission has begun a project to provide information that could help answer that question.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced last month that it has organized the Value Commission, which will work over the next year to assemble data to help answer such questions as: How do I know that getting a bachelor鈥檚 degree is going to help me earn more in my field than getting an associate degree?
The commission intends to create a way of defining and measuring the return on investment that postsecondary education or training delivers. Its 30 members include leaders in higher education, business, advocacy, and research.
The Institute for Higher Education Policy will be the managing partner of the Value Commission.
