Exposing the Media’s Distaste for Higher Education

The higher education narrative is owned by three groups … colleges themselves, the media, and I’ll get to the third one later. Obviously, colleges will tell a positive story … the narrative is tied to their product. Neither balance nor objectivity is expected … that’s how marketing and self-promotion work.

The second is the media. Like colleges, their narrative is also tied to a product … subscribers, readers, and ad dollars. This is where the similarity ends because unlike colleges, balance and objectivity are not only expected of the press, both are demanded. Because without balance and objectivity, we no longer have a free press; we have bias and spin:

People think they’re getting objective information, but they’re not. They’re getting news wrapped up in opinion. — Lynn Samuels

When it comes to the media, the higher education story is no longer news. It’s a negative opinion — lacking objectivity — that’s packaged to sell, not to report. When discussing higher education, journalists and news outlets don’t want balance; balance is boring. Instead, they lean into sensationalism and anxiety[1] the way McDonalds leans into appetite. This is a symptom of our “corporate” press, of a marketing machine that still holds tight to the fading word “free.”

Doomwashing the College Story

In telling the higher education story, the media suffers tunnel vision; they highlight and sensationalize only the negatives … high costs, high debt, declining enrollment. These stories should be told, but the media tells them in a vacuum, i.e., one-sided (all negative) and universal (the negatives are pandemic). Beyond this vacuum, there’s a greater truth to be told … that many college students value their decision, many degrees are affordable, and many universities are actually growing.

But the greater truth doesn’t make for good marketing; news minus scare doesn’t sell well (hence, the saying “If it bleeds, it leads.”). Publications amp the scare by retelling … over and over and over … higher education’s disaster story. Any good is rarely offered; better to be unbalanced (and turn a blind eye) if it means more subscribers and readers. For example, here’s a recent list of higher education headlines — all negative — under Fortune’s “Gen Z” tag:

Unspoken Data: How It Intentionally Frames the College Story

Typically, the picture painted … and universally sold … is that college enrollment is shrinking. In the media, the tone is often dire, and reading between the lines, one can see the Titanic slowly sinking. But is this entirely factual? Is this the whole story?

According to a March 2023 Fortune article titled “The labor shortage is pushing American colleges into crisis, with the plunge in enrollment the worst ever recorded”:

Nationwide, undergraduate college enrollment dropped 8% from 2019 to 2022, with declines even after returning to in-person classes, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse. The slide in the college-going rate since 2018 is the steepest on record, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A “plunge in enrollment.” The “worst ever recorded.” This grim crisis is supported by data from the National Student Clearinghouse; specifically, “undergraduate college enrollment dropped 8% from 2019 to 2022.”

But is that all the data? Or is it just the “scary” data Fortune wants you to see?

On Feb 2, 2023, a month before the Fortune article, the National Student Clearinghouse published its data on college enrollment. However, the data below — for whatever reason (wink, wink) — ended up (for the most part[2]) on Fortune’s cutting room floor:

· ​According to a new report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, fall undergraduate enrollment has begun to stabilize in 2022, contracting only by 0.6% or about 94,000 students, compared to fall 2021.

· Fall freshman enrollment has begun to rise, increasing by about 97,000 (+4.3%) compared to the previous fall.

· Male undergraduate enrollments were stable (+0.2%, +15,000 students) while female enrollment continued declines from 2021 (-1.5%, -122,000 students). This extended the trend of improved enrollment patterns for men relative to women first seen in fall 2021.

· Latinx and Asian students bucked the slight national decline, with their undergraduate enrollment rising 1.6% and 1.8%, respectively.[3]

· Undergraduate business programs grew from 2021 (+1.2%, +19,000 students) and computer and information sciences gained more than 10% or 54,000 students in fall 2022.

· Computer science graduate program enrollment growth accelerated in fall 2022, increasing by 18.4 percent or 30,000 students.[4] Since fall 2017, graduate Computer sciences programs have increased 74.1% or 82,000 more students.[5]

But selective data isn’t Fortune’s only anti-college weapon. The article above also builds a crisis foundation upon selective stories … a few personal quotes from young people who’ve opted out of college. This manipulates the optics because these individual (non-expert) stories are meant (wrongly so) to embody the collective, national experience.

At its worst, this isn’t journalism; it’s gamesmanship, i.e., printing negative quotes to insulate a negative “fact.[6]” But here’s the real fact … there are millions of students in America who will offer — in their own words — something positive about college. And yet, Fortune snubs their viewpoint. Further underscoring this ploy, the article chooses to publish the Clearinghouse’s negative data but for some reason excludes the optimistic outlook from the Clearinghouse’s Executive Director:

“It is encouraging to start seeing signs of a recovery in the numbers of new freshmen,” said Doug Shapiro, Executive Director, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. “Although freshmen classes are still well below pre-pandemic levels, especially at community colleges, the fact that they are swinging upward in all sectors is a positive indicator for the future.”

College Students: Their Untold Stories

In the media’s portrayal of higher education, there are two untruths, each feeding into the other. The first untruth is that higher education is having an end-times crisis. The second untruth is that this crisis is building into some great awakening, i.e., the unarguable, undoubtable, coast-to-coast realization that college isn’t worth it.

But the story being told is through the media’s lens; it’s not indicative of balance or reality. The truth is there are millions of people who experience college very differently than the experience being “reported.” This is the third group who owns the higher education story … America’s college students.[7]

America’s college students have a story to tell — some good, some bad — but the good stories are rarely highlighted by the media. Rather, the positive experiences are buried beneath cherrypicked data. Or, through the magic of 4 or 5 negative quotes, the media implies a grand, universal story … that a few, select individuals represent humanity across the board.

In stark contrast to the “universal” story often told, there’s a different story that’s rarely told. Every year, millions and millions of students graduate from U.S. colleges. Of course, some will have a bad experience, but the majority won’t. Many will define college as a transformative experience and an important investment — a life-changing time that was (for them personally) the superior choice compared to trade or vocational school. This is why, despite the bleak narrative:

· a number of colleges continue to grow[8] and

· freshman enrollment saw a substantial increase last fall.[9]

The “True” College Story Is a Balanced Story

Despite the anti-college story being shoveled by journalists, there’s still a few in the media who dig into the data, who offer balance, who hold up reality instead of hawking disaster. These are the writers who tell the “true” college story. In his article “Take a Real Look at College Enrollment Figures” Derek Newton, writing for Forbes, says:

The actual [college enrollment] numbers tell a different story. If you actually look, it’s easy to see that over the past decade enrollment squeezes are isolated to specific sectors and not nearly as dramatic or drastic as the doomsayers say.

Newton points out that net student lost — 2.4 million over 10 years — can be attributed, for the most part, to community colleges and for-profit colleges, which alone account for about 2.2 million of these students.[10] In terms of decline, the story isn’t as scandalous as the media makes it out to be. In fact, as Newton tells it, the story is more optimistic:

Granted, the big state colleges and universities saw their attendance numbers slowly rise for the first eight years of the past decade, only to see them drop noticeably during Covid, as many students understandably decided that an online college experience was not what they wanted. Still, the net drop [over 10 years] was just 100,000, about 1.2%.

But the losses aren’t the story. The non-losses should be.

In the private, four-year college sector — the very one most pundits said was most at risk — enrollment is actually up slightly. Yes, up. Ten years ago, 3.929 million students went to private four-year colleges. [Education writer Phil] Hill’s estimates this year are for these colleges to enroll 3.971 million. More, in other words.

“More, in other words” … a vastly different higher education story than the one told over and over by the media. It’s a move towards balance, a shift beyond the bias, a small step away from the “typical” story … a sensationalized story that, too often, reads like “news wrapped up in opinion.”

[1] A list of doom-and-gloom headlines (from the past year) about higher education:

· “College enrollment continues to slide as more students question the value of a four-year degree” (CNBC)

· “Community college is on the rise for Gen Z as high tuition rates and job opportunities encourage them to skip 4-year degrees” (Business Insider)

· “Most Americans Say College Is No Longer Worth the Cost” (Money)

· “Dave Ramsey Has Outspoken View On the ‘Lie’ About College” (The Street)

· “The top entry-level job for grads is telling Gen Z that college isn’t worth it” (Fortune)

· “Fewer People Are Going to College. That Could Be a Good Thing” (Reason)

· “College Enrollment Declines Are Here to Stay” (U.S. News)

· “Why Americans are increasingly dubious about going to college” (NBC)

Do these articles contain facts? Of course they do. But the titles contain hyper-emotional, non-factual language that invokes fear, dread, and doubt … “encourage them to skip,” “most Americans say,” “no longer worth,” “the ‘lie’ about,” “here to stay,” “increasingly dubious.”

[2] The Fortune article makes a tiny (i.e., buried) effort towards balance, though it makes no effort to provide balancing “data.” Worse, it qualifies, dilutes, and offsets this balance with more crisis language:

There’s some hope the worst has passed. The number of freshmen enrolling at U.S. colleges increased slightly from 2021 to 2022. But that figure, along with total college enrollment, remains far below pre-pandemic levels.

[3] The Fortune article reports:

Even more alarming are the figures for Black, Hispanic and low-income students, who saw the largest slides in many states. In Tennessee’s class of 2021, just 35% of Hispanic graduates and 44% of Black graduates enrolled in college, compared with 58% of their white peers.

But this data contrasts, to some degree, with data from the National Student Clearinghouse:

Latinx and Asian students bucked the slight national decline, with their undergraduate enrollment rising 1.6% and 1.8%, respectively.

In telling the story from a minority perspective, Fortune makes its “many states” case by looking at Tennessee and only Tennessee. To provide a more honest story (one that extends beyond Tennessee), it would seem critical to let readers know that while Hispanic/Black enrollment slid in one state, Latinx/Asian enrollment increased across America.

[4] One has to wonder: Are computer science programs up because students love computer science? Or has the media created this demand by selling STEM careers (at the expense of other programs) as the golden ticket to riches and fortune?

[5] Here, I cherrypicked the data. For the sake of balance, not everything’s rosy in this report. Postsecondary enrollment remains well below pre-pandemic levels, and graduate enrollment has fared poorly. The point is there are positives in higher education, and their continued exclusion by the media is either negligent, intentional, or prejudicial.

[6] It’s difficult to keep a straight face when publications (here, it’s Fortune) offer a generational analysis via “dozens of interviews”:

In dozens of interviews with The Associated Press, educators, researchers and students described a generation jaded by education institutions.

Is this the only proof they have of a “generation jaded by education institutions”? “Dozens”? Is that 12, 24, 36 interviews (the answer is left to the imagination) out of potentially billions? And out of these “dozens,” not a single one had anything positive to say? Somehow, they were all universally on the same page (i.e., “jaded”) when it comes to describing “a generation”?

[7] This group can be further extended to the parents of college students and the alumni who invest in their alma maters. Again, not every experience will be rosy, but these individuals have something to say, much of it positive. Undoubtedly, the parent of a 1st-gen student can see the value of college even if the media wants to bury that value. And many alumni continue to invest (time and money) in their alma maters, underscoring the impact that college (then and now) has on their lives.

[8] Nietzel, M. T. (2022, October 12). “These colleges and universities are reporting record size freshmen classes.” Forbes. And then there’s this from The Lion, an initiative of the Herzog Foundation:

The national undergraduate enrollment rate dropped 1.1% during the fall 2022 semester while the rate declined a total of 4.2% since 2020, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Many faith-based institutions, however, saw an increase in enrollment which higher education experts claim is because of these institutions’ commitment to their roots. [emphasis added]

[9] From the National Student Clearinghouse’s 2022–2023 data: “Fall freshman enrollment has begun to rise, increasing by about 97,000 (+4.3%) compared to the previous fall.”

[10] Newton cites data from education writer Phil Hill. Of course, everyone should investigate Hill’s data … we, as readers, should never take “reported” data at face value. But if Hill’s positive data is put to the test, the same standard must apply to any and all negative data cited by other publications.