On January 20, 2012, CED hosted a policy discussion with Kaplan CEO Andrew Rosen. Mr. Rosen is the author of Change.edu, a book that takes a hard look at the current state of American postsecondary education and how we can improve higher education and better prepare students for the workplace. At CED, Mr. Rosen outlined the problems faced by non-traditional postsecondary education students. In addition to the costs of continuing their education, older postsecondary students are often pulled away from their studies by jobs and family.

Mr. Rosen also discussed his new "learning playbook" for universities and colleges and how business leaders can support necessary innovations that will enable American higher education to regain its global primacy and be a catalyst for economic growth in the 21st century.



Between 1973 and 2008, the percentage of American jobs requiring postsecondary education more than doubled, from 28 percent to 59 percent. But, our nation has lagged in producing educated workers to fill these jobs. In the 1970s, the United States was a world leader in the percentage of 25- to 34-year olds with postsecondary credentials; in 2009, the U.S. dropped to 16thplace.

To address this critical competitiveness issue, President Obama laid out a bold goal: by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. Given the current economic conditions, this goal cannot be met by increased government funding alone. Instead, the time has come for a fundamental re-ordering of American higher education.

In "Change.edu: Rebooting for the new talent economy," Mr. Rosen details how far the American higher education system has strayed from the goals of learning outcomes, access, affordability, and accountability that should characterize our system, and offers a prescription to restore American educational pre-eminence.

About Andrew Rosen

Andrew S. Rosen is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kaplan, Inc., among the world's largest, most diverse education organizations and the largest subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).

Throughout his two decade career at Kaplan, Rosen has helped pioneer much of the company's innovation and growth, with a focus on student success and outcomes. These include the founding of Concord Law School, the first fully online law school in the U.S.; the development of Kaplan University from a few dozen to more than 50,000 online students; and the creation of new blended online and classroom-based learning opportunities for both working adults and test preparation students.

An advocate for adult learners and frequent commentator on the challenges facing higher education today, Rosen is the author of Change.edu: Rebooting for the new talent economy (Kaplan Publishing 2010). Within his book, Rosen details the history of innovation in American higher education and lays out a prescription for restoring its pre-eminence by focusing anew on the goals of learning outcomes, access, affordability, and accountability.

Rosen joined Kaplan in 1992, and was named Chairman and CEO in November 2008. Before Kaplan, he was an attorney at the Washington Post Company and associate counsel at Newsweek. Rosen holds an A.B. degree from Duke University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

About Change.edu: Rebooting for the new talent economy

It's no wonder American higher education is facing a crisis.

While low-income students can't find a spot in their local community colleges for lack of funding, public four-year universities are spending staggering sums on luxurious residence halls, ever-bigger football stadiums, and obscure research institutes. We have cosseted our most advantaged students even as we deny access to the working adults who urgently need higher education to advance their careers and our economy. In Change.edu: Rebooting for the new talent economy, Andrew S. Rosen clearly and entertainingly details how far the American higher education system has strayed from the goals of access, quality, affordability, and accountability that should characterize our system, and offers a prescription to restore American educational pre-eminence.

To change, our system will have to end its reflexive opposition to anything new and different. Rosen describes how each new wave of innovation and expansion of educational access— starting with the founding of Harvard in 1636, and continuing with the advent of land-grant colleges in the 19th century, community colleges in the 20th century, and private-sector colleges over the last two decades—has been met with misunderstanding and ridicule. When colleges like the University of California, Cornell, and Purdue were founded, they were scorned as "pretenders to the title of university"—language that tracks later criticisms of community colleges and most recently for-profit colleges.

Avoiding that condescension is just one of the reasons colleges have come under the sway of "Harvard Envy"—schools that were founded to expand access feel an inexorable tug to strive to become more prestigious and exclusive.

Even worse, the competition for the best students has led universities to turn themselves into full-fledged resorts; they've built climbing walls, French bistros, and 20-person hot tubs to entice students to their campuses.

How can America address an incentive system in higher educa¬tion that is mismatched to the challenges of the years ahead? In Change.edu, Rosen outlines "seven certainties" of education in the coming 25 years, and presents an imperative for how our system must prepare for the coming changes. He proposes a new "playbook" for dealing with the change ahead, one that will enable American higher education to regain its global pri¬macy and be a catalyst for economic growth in the 21st century.

What others are saying about Change.edu:
"A well-written and thought-provoking critique of contemporary higher education of interest to all readers concerned about the future strength of American society." School Library Journal
"An enjoyable look back at the history of higher education in America and the startling new ways it might develop in the future." Kirkus Reviews

For more on CED's postsecondary education project, click here.