In 2025, let’s resolve to open gates of opportunity to higher education | Opinion

It’s resolution season. And amid all the proclamations to reduce screen time, increase exercise, and lose weight, how about maximizing access to higher education this coming year?

Regardless of the declining reputation that higher education has seen in recent years, a four-year postsecondary degree still remains the best way to move a person into a higher income level, along with the meaningful well-being benefits of being healthier, more engaged, and more connected. College graduates have always earned a higher annual wage than high school graduates—and this gap in earnings continues to grow, showing the increasing worth of a college degree.

There is an increasing urgency to increase access to college.

First is being mindful of the current K-12 student population that will have the chance one day to enter higher education. Students of the future will have more economic need—and will benefit more from a college degree. One important metric that conveys who the students of the future will be is the percentage nationally of K-12 students eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch. The trend is cause for concern. In 1989, 31 percent of K-12 students qualified; in 2020, the figure was 57 percent. This percentage has risen steadily over the past 31 years. If economic situations stay constant, 3/5 of our K-12 students may soon qualify for free or reduced school lunches. This increasing population of students should be encouraged to consider and take advantage of the opportunities provided by a college degree.

A second indicator is first-time full-time undergraduate students who take advantage of Pell grants, a form of federal financial aid. Pell grants are awarded to students with a household income of under approximately $52,000 a year. In Kentucky, approximately 42 percent of household earn under $52,000 a year. However, students eligible for this college funding do not take advantage of these grants. In Kentucky in 2022, the estimated college participation rates for students from low-income families was 20 percent.

Third, a study released in November from the National Bureau of Economic Research is grim. Two major findings were disconcerting about access to 65 highly selective public and private colleges over 100 years. The authors note that the country “experienced a dramatic increase in college attendance rates, from less than 10 percent of the population at the beginning of the 20th century, to over 60% in the modern day.” But despite this increase “in the share of lower-income students…the representation of these students at elite private or public colleges has remained at similarly low levels throughout the last century.”

These metrics suggest that if our nation desires to foster opportunity afforded by higher education, then we have a great deal of people whose needs must be met. We must give greater access to college to the people who deserve it most.

Resolving to open gates of opportunity is an important facet of this new year’s resolution, and doing so invests both in our long-term economic system and in our fellow human beings.

It is a fact that a college’s or university’s real work begins—not ends—when a student enrolls, particularly one who is the first in a family to begin higher education and/or comes from a lower quintile of household income. Institutions have too often defined their work as “done” by getting a student to the starting line—enrollment. More institutions should focus on supports to get students to the finish line—the commencement platform.

No better example of the need for this hard work is the average college graduation rate in the country of Pell grant recipients, which is 34 percent. Clearly, it takes more effort to get a student to graduation who has economic and societal factors pushing against that success.

In Kentucky, Berea College has the highest percentage of Pell grant recipients in the state and is tied nationwide with Chaminade University of Honolulu for the highest graduation rate at 66 percent of Pell recipients at a Pell-serving institution. Western Governors University (WGU) of Utah is third at 64 percent.

We are working to determine what factors most encourage students to enroll in college and what factors help students stay and succeed in college, especially in a post-COVID world defined by the new pressures of social media, artificial intelligence, isolation, and political fragmentation. As a first step, we must erase financial barriers to college.

Berea was founded to educate women and men, Black and white together in 1855. In 1892, it stopped charging tuition and today meets the full financial need of students without giving loans. Students pay what the government determines, and Berea covers the rest. As such, the New York Times in 2023 named it the #1 institution in the country for college access, and US News and World Report ranked it #1 for the lowest educational debt nationwide.

Let’s all resolve to be inspired by Berea’s, Chaminade’s, and WGU Utah’s examples and work to get more underrepresented students—today and tomorrow—a four-year degree. Let’s counter the questioning of higher education by helping this next generation fully realize its benefits.

Cheryl L. Nixon is president of Berea College; Chad Berry is Vice President for Alumni, Communications and Philanthropy there.