About Productivity


Cost-effective higher education that works for students and the American economy

Our Challenge/Our Opportunity

America is facing unprecedented economic decline and insecurity. Unemployment is approaching levels unseen in a quarter century. The world's credit markets have collapsed. The auto and banking industries are in financial jeopardy. This crisis demands a turnaround plan that boldly marshals American talent. To capture more talent, we need more college graduates.

Lumina's productivity work is an effort to increase the number of college graduates within available resources while preserving instructional quality. Together we can - and we must - ensure these graduates are ready to contribute to the nation's political and social health and succeed in a global knowledge economy.

Call to Action

To succeed, we must reverse a trend that has put the nation in a four-way tie for 10th for the percentage of its population between ages 25 and 34 with a college degree. Through this work, like-minded organizations work within states to recalibrate higher education spending to graduate many more students. The initiative relies on three mutually reinforcing pathways to provide greater opportunity and mobility for students:

  1. Increase and Reward Completion. States should set aside significant portions of their higher education budgets to reward institutions whose students complete courses and graduate in greater numbers at lower costs. States also should pay colleges and universities more for serving students who will constitute a growing share of the American labor force, including students of color, first-generation students, students from low-income families and working or unemployed adults.
  2. Generate and Reinvest Savings. Spread widely, efficient and cost-effective academic and administrative approaches can free resources to serve more undergraduates. Fewer wasted credits, better use of tuition policy, campus space, fewer building projects, and outsourcing operations can make the best use of available dollars.
  3. Educate and Train in Affordable Ways. Higher education is a prime candidate for innovation. High-quality degree programs could be delivered in new, cost-effective ways. This would free resources that could be used to provide new opportunities for non-traditional students. Higher education institutions - public and private, nonprofit and for-profit, two-year and four-year - must become more nimble, efficient and responsive to the needs of students and American society.

Learn More about Lumina Foundation for Education: http://www.luminafoundation.org

Learn More about Jobs for the Future: http://www.jff.org