Challenges of Access, Affordability, and Persistence

Abstract

In early 2005, two comprehensive reports on the status and challenges of higher education institutions were issued. In April 2005, the Educational Policy Institute (EPI, www.educationalpolicy.org), a nonpartisan research organization focused on educational opportunity, released the report Global Rankings Compare Higher Education Access and Affordability across Countries. I will put aside, for now, the issue of rankings and their relative value to higher education providers and consumers. As educators, we are well aware of the problems of simplistic interpretations when casual readers fail to look beyond the rankings to the greater complexities associated with the hierarchies. That being said, this report did tackle long-standing issues of who goes to college (access) and how it is funded (affordability). Access is affected not only by college preparedness, but by the individual’s ability to pay. In the absence of individual resources, potential students are dependent on the various systems of institutional and governmental support to broker access and affordability. While academic preparation and intent to go to college may be somewhat within the control of the individual, other economic factors (e.g., individual resources, tuition-levels, governmental aid policies) play a significant role in who goes to college, at what institutional type, and how they engage with post-secondary education. I recommend this report (available at the website) because it challenges us to think about the societal commitments necessary to create creative, criticalthinking, collaborative populations around the globe. In this issue, Katrina Meyer analyses the establishment and evolution of Western Governors University (WGU, www.wgu.edu), a nonprofit online university established in 1995 by the governors of the western states. WGU was established to address “growing pressure for increased access to higher education” for increasing number of high school graduates and nontraditional adult students. “Anytime, anywhere learning” is rapidly expanding, and educational opportunities for non-traditional, adult populations are at the core of much of this growth. Meyer discusses how WGU was and is shaped by political