Kentucky’s universities and colleges are making steady progress in seeing a greater percentage of the state’s population with a higher education. A progress report came before members of the State Council on Postsecondary Education Friday.
CPE President Aaron Thompson says it means reaching a wide range of potential students. “There’s an opportunity for us to get out of state students that contribute significantly to our economy while they’re here and many of them stay in our state afterwards that contribute. So, we’re going to have to be far more holistically focused on getting more enrollment, but we’re also going to have to get more people through,” said Thompson.
Today’s progress report showed that in the 2017-2018 period the total number of undergraduate degrees and credentials increased 2.9% over the previous year. An average annual increase of 1.7% is needed to meet the overall goal of having 60% of Kentucky’s population with degrees or credentials by 2030. The challenges come with a declining college-going rate and a projected static number of high school graduates.
