Hunter Baker: The state of higher education

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, August 14th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

It’s that time of year when parents typically drop off their college freshmen, but there are a lot fewer of them than in recent years. And Christian higher education is not immune from the effects of the demographic cliff. As WORLD Opinions commentator Hunter Baker says that’s prompting some hard questions.

HUNTER BAKER: In higher education, the demographic cliff of 2026 has been in the front windshield for a long time. What is the cliff? It’s the 18-year mark after the financial crisis of 2008. At the time, it appeared the entire U.S. economy could be headed for a new Great Depression thanks to the cancerous impact of the subprime mortgage lending collapse. While the worst effects of the disaster were averted, it left a mark on the minds of many Americans. When people feel less secure and less optimistic about the future, they tend to have fewer children. That happened. Fertility declined in the wake of the crisis and hasn’t recovered since as the United States has moved below population replacement.

Enrollment in colleges has been down over the past decade, and that’s led to some small and private colleges going under. The latest to close was Eastern Nazarene University in Quincy, Massachusetts. Just before that news hit, Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, announced it was shutting down majors in the humanities. Even institutions on more solid footing have engaged in belt-tightening, with retirement buyouts and other reductions of the workforce.

The demographic cliff is just a part of a general shift in American higher education. During the past quarter century, we have gone from a general view that college is worthwhile on its own merits to increasing skepticism about its value, which has led to increased focus on majors tied to professions. At the same time, many deride colleges as factories of “woke” indoctrination that will send students home to their families with unrecognizable worldviews. Amid the population storm and cultural pressure, how should Christian colleges and those who support them respond?

The first answer is a simple one. Christian families and philanthropists should demand that Christian colleges have a clear reason for their existence. These schools must be recognizably Christian and more in tune with Christian orthodoxy than the shifting contours of American culture. But that challenge cuts two ways. On the one hand, Christian colleges must be Christian, but on the other, being seriously Christian carries a higher cultural cost. The hiring pool for faithful faculty will be smaller. And it may be harder to find students who share Christian core convictions, especially about human sexuality.

The second answer is more difficult, because it comes down to financial cost. Christian colleges, like most private schools, are more expensive than most public institutions. The gap is not as large as many believe due to scholarships and denomination subsidized rates that many Christian institutions offer. However, it is still the case that tuition rose much more rapidly than the rate of inflation during the past 30 years. There is little question that high cost makes higher education less attractive across the board.

This is an opportunity for churches and philanthropists to get more involved. Giving from denominational sponsors has been largely static for decades. What might once have been 10 percent of a school’s budget is now more like 1 to 3 percent. If we want students from all walks of life to be able to have a Christian education in a high-cost environment, we will need to find ways to subsidize the cost through grassroots generosity.

Christian higher education is about to be put to the test in significant ways. Do we believe that the dynamic of the young person being taught and entering into a relationship with a Christian professor has special value? And what about the time those students spend together with iron sharpening iron? Do we believe it changes lives and advances the work of the kingdom? If we do, then we’ll need to work hard to preserve those things for generations to come, regardless of how many freshmen arrive each fall.

I’m Hunter Baker.

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