The Edge: A university system bets big by embracing microcredentials

The University of Texas System aims to bolster the value of its degrees — and to develop new educational options for those who may never enroll. [The Edge Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle covering innovation in and around higher ed. This week I share thoughts from my conversation with the chancellor of the University of Texas System on its big push into microcredentials. And my colleague Graham Vyse highlights ideas from a recent forum on ways rural colleges can better attract and serve students. SPECIAL OFFER FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for as low as $59. Take advantage of our limited-time savings event and get unlimited access to essential reporting, data, and analysis. A university’s push into microcredentials signals a widening mission For the past two years, the University of Texas System has been experimenting with microcredentials. Now, as part of that [Texas Credentials for the Future]( effort, it’s also making a big bet on a partnership with Coursera and that company’s [Career Academy]( a platform that offers online professional training. Under the new program, all UT students, faculty and staff members, and alumni at its nine nonmedical campuses will have free access to the academy’s offerings, which include opportunities to earn certificates from companies like Google, IBM, and Salesforce. Coursera leaders [say]( the new program “shows where the future of higher education is headed.” I’m not prepared to go that far. But I do find it significant that a major university system like UT sees value in developing such a partnership with an outside education provider. To me, this partnership — and the microcredential push — suggests the public university’s understanding of a different, broader role it needs to play in the fast-growing state, a sentiment that its chancellor, James B. Milliken, echoed in our conversation last week. “We exist to support the state of Texas and its priorities,” Milliken told me. And with its population and economic growth expected to continue, the state’s traditional education institutions “don’t have the capacity to provide education beyond high school to those who need it.” So UT is facilitating some added options. Coincidentally (mostly), this notion of colleges’ engaging in outside-party partnerships is one theme I plan to explore on Thursday, during the last day of the virtual Chronicle Festival, when I talk with Coursera’s chief content officer, Marni Baker Stein. (I’ll also be interviewing the former chief executive of IBM, Ginni Rometty. Click [here]( to register or learn more about that day’s lineup of speakers.) The scale of the UT effort is another noteworthy aspect — not because, yeah, yeah, everything is bigger in Texas. It’s interesting because the project could provide a rich test bed to evaluate if and how microcredentials make a difference in students’ career trajectories. The nine campuses enroll some 240,000 students. The UT system says it plans to track if students with such credentials earn higher salaries than do those without them, with similar majors, and whether the credentials help students achieve their career goals. I really hope they do, especially because the initial focus of the microcredential project was aimed at students in majors that tend to result in lower earnings for graduates. UT’s Board of Regents has allocated $2 million to cover the costs of providing the Coursera offerings free to students and others. It’s still a little unclear to me how many students, staff members, and alumni that money will cover, but UT officials said the sum had been based on the participation rate from a test run last year, when some 3,000 students completed 6,000 courses. The Coursera options are part of UT’s broader microcredential project, supported in part with a $1.5-million grant from Strada Education. Each of the nine participating campuses [is developing microcredentials differently](. Some of the credentials are more extracurricular in scope; others are for credit and even integrated into degree programs. It’s worth highlighting, as the organization [WorkCred has noted about the assistance it’s giving to UT]( on this project, that when microcredentials are embedded in the curriculum, students can often use federal student aid to cover the costs of any associated certification exams; otherwise they must bear the costs themselves, which could be a barrier that discourages participation. Initially, UT focused its microcredential efforts on students in degree programs that have historically led to lower-paying salaries, hoping the graduates’ pay prospects might be improved. Now, with the Coursera partnership, the effort is expanding. Milliken said he sees several target populations, including current students who decide to “bolt” a microcredential onto their traditional degrees, and some of the four million Texans with some college but no degree who might want additional education but not necessarily a formal degree. He also expects alumni will be interested: “We ought to continue to offer them a place to go to reskill.” For me, that focus on serving nonmatriculated students is another intriguing element of the effort. We’re used to research and comprehensive universities that embrace their roles in teaching, scholarship, and public service. And many institutions have long had separate divisions for continuing and professional education. But with this project UT seems as if it’s adding a fourth dimension to the university’s mission: explicitly taking on the responsibility to prepare its own students — and others — for the work force. It could seem, as Milliken noted to me, a surprising direction for a senior-level institution like UT. Yet considering the backlash higher ed is facing today, I suspect the very not-so-ivory-tower move of creating microcredential opportunities for people who might otherwise never enroll in a university could prove politically popular for the system. In fact, it may already be: The university has been discussing the program with business leaders from around the state, Milliken told me, and they “are extremely interested in us doing this.” One final thought: It’s not lost on me that both booming Texas and aging Maine, which [I wrote about in my last newsletter]( share some work-force challenges to which higher ed is responding, even though they are demographic opposites. And in each of those cases, the institutions involved aren’t acting in isolation. They’re developing partnerships and becoming more porous — a trend that’s definitely worth watching. Expanding enrollment at rural colleges To draw more students to rural colleges will require more aggressively marketing the advantages of a rural lifestyle, closely collaborating with local industries, and creating pathways that start as early as preschool, campus leaders said in [a recent Chronicle forum](. Here are two takeaways from the panel, which was moderated by Eric Kelderman, a Chronicle senior reporter, and underwritten by the Ascendium Education Group as part of our yearlong series on [student success](. Prospective students — and faculty members — need a better sense of rural America’s appeal. “People who haven’t lived in rural America don’t really understand what it is,” said Patricia Draves, president of Graceland University, outside Kansas City, Mo. Colleges stand to communicate better basic information like where to get a haircut or work part time, or how to create a rich social life. Many rural college towns offer a kind of intimacy and connectedness you can’t find in urban areas, Draves emphasized. In addition to having a safe, tight-knit campus with an abundance of activities, she said, students benefit from a surrounding community that’s very involved in the life of the college: “The whole town comes to every choir concert and football game.” Better ties to local industries can serve students. An online program at the University of Minnesota at Crookston aims to help “develop the next generation of rural professionals,” said Mary Holz-Clause, its chancellor. Intended for adult students who may have some college credit and are currently working, the program focuses on the needs of the local agriculture industry, with coursework on leadership and other work-force skills. Crookston started the program from scratch after conducting focus groups with local industry leaders. Holz-Clause’s overarching message, articulated on a slide she shared, was: “We are not going to change rural America — we need to change for rural America.” —Graham Vyse Join a conversation on lawmaker influence over curricula State officials seem to want more say than ever over what students learn in public-college classrooms. Conservative lawmakers say the tuition payers and taxpayers they represent should have more influence on the curriculum to keep left-wing professors from indoctrinating students. But opponents see efforts to curtail academic freedom and enforce a particular point of view. On Thursday, September 14, at noon Eastern time, my colleague Emma Pettit and a panel of experts will delve into this trend and discuss how it affects teaching, academic governance, and campus climate. Sign up [here]( to join the conversation. 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