The Value of Higher Learning Institutions

Since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, much has been made of the fights between the administration and institutions of higher learning — the nation’s colleges and universities. Much of that coverage has centered on battles with well-known, highly-regarded private institutions, such as Harvard and Columbia, and administration concerns that those institutions are too “woke” — which has become a catch-all term for left-leaning political thought.

But higher education in the United States is much more complex. While the media zeros in on high-profile Ivy League institutions, they make up only a tiny fraction of U.S. colleges and universities.

This semester, the American Communities Project is partnering with the Detroit Free Press and the Michigan State University Journalism School to explore the broader story of higher education by looking more deeply at graduating seniors at four big public universities in the state of Michigan and the College Town counties around them: Michigan State University in Ingham County, the University of Michigan in Washtenaw County, Wayne State University in Wayne County, and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo County.

These four schools are just a small sample of the 15 public, four-year universities in the state, but they offer a glimpse of the larger ecosystem around higher education in the United States.

Public Schools Dominate

The first thing to understand about higher education in the United States is that despite the media’s focus on elite private schools, the majority of four-year college students (57%) attend public institutions, according to the National Student Clearinghouse. In Michigan, that figure is a stratospheric 83%. (PABs in the chart below are Primarily Associates Bachelor’s granting institutions.)

But the Michigan schools the ACP is looking at this semester show why the simple public versus private split misses a lot of nuances. The four schools are all public and serve very different populations.

First, while all these schools are public schools in Michigan, they serve students from all over the country. Only about half of the University of Michigan’s undergraduate population hails from inside the state. The in-state student population is about three-quarters of total undergrads at Michigan State and Western Michigan and more than 90% at Wayne State.

Those numbers all have stories behind them, of course.

The University of Michigan is considered the state’s flagship school with a reputation that draws a lot of out-of-state students — and their higher tuition rates. Michigan State is the other big research school in the state, but it is in the state capital and is generally more focused on in-state students. Western represents the “directional” schools in the state (along with Eastern, Central, and Northern Michigan). It tends to serve an in-state population that can’t go or doesn’t want to go to the big two schools. And Wayne, in Detroit, is the university that serves a lot of commuter students in that metro area.

There are other differences, of course. Look at tuition — both for in-state and out-of-state students. Look at the racial and ethnic composition of the schools.

And those differences are all about other factors that define the schools. For instance, Wayne and Michigan are both racially and ethnically diverse, but in different ways and for different reasons. Wayne is based in a majority Black city and draws students from it. The University of Michigan’s population comes from all over and it shows. In fact, the school’s Hispanic population is twice as high as the state as a whole.

Different Emphases and Advantages

The schools fill different niches within the state’s higher education system. The University of Michigan is known for its medical school, law school, and fine arts programs. Michigan State is known for its school of veterinary medicine, supply chain management program, nuclear physics program, and its school of journalism. Western has its Aviation Flight Science Program to train pilots. Wayne is strong in social work and library sciences and serves the 4 million people in its metro area.

Those assets ultimately serve the state of Michigan, and there are similar stories in all 50 states. Public universities are growing and improving human capital — creating the next generation of leaders in industry, politics, and culture for their home states.

You can see the economic impact by looking closer at Michigan and the College Town counties where these universities reside. The chart below shows the top eight counties in Michigan by 2023 per capita GDP.

Oakland County, the wealthy Urban Suburb north of Detroit and home to Oakland University and its 15,000 students, is first on the list. But then comes Washtenaw, home of the University of Michigan as well as Eastern Michigan University. Midland, the home of Dow Chemical, follows. Kent, home of Grand Rapids and a satellite campus of Grand Valley State University focused on medicine, is next. Then comes Ingham, home of Michigan State, followed by Kalamazoo, where Western Michigan’s campus sits. Wayne, the Big City home of Wayne State and Detroit, comes in eighth.

In other words, there seems to be a strong correlation between having a big university in your backyard and having a vital economy — in Michigan and elsewhere.

To be sure, college costs have risen sharply in recent decades, and the debate about whether a four-year degree is “worth it” has raged for years now. (Although, it should be noted that government data make it clear that wages for college graduates are substantially higher than wages for those without a degree, on average.)

But the larger discussion about the value of colleges and universities to the nation often seems to miss the point. Despite the arguments centered on “wokeness” — particularly at high-profile, prestigious schools — it’s hard to ignore the value that higher learning institutions provide. They lead research efforts, they produce leaders, and they create wealth for their communities and their home states.