Giving Compass' Take:

• Venture capitalist, Ryan Craig, wrote a book that examines what he thinks will be the most promising alternatives to traditional four-year institutions will be for prospective students. He argues that colleges are only useful to those students that can afford them, but there are other options that are less expensive and more accessible. 

• Are more students considering alternatives to traditional higher education paths?

• Read about how schools and startups are hacking college affordability. 

Debates about how to expand access to higher education often assume a one-size-fits-all model of what college should be. But new book due out this fall argues for the creation of colleges of many shapes and sizes, including a new set of low-cost options that are focused on helping students who just can’t afford a four-year campus experience get a first job.

The book is called “A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College,” and it is written by a venture capitalist making bets on which alternatives he thinks have the most promise. The author is Ryan Craig, co-founder and managing director of University Ventures, and in the book he acknowledges a key drawback to the vision he is outlining.

Craig stresses that such full-service colleges will continue to survive for those who can afford them, but that providing more career-focused options will be better for social mobility and meaningful access without high degrees of debt.

EdSurge: In your book, you talk about how higher education has a trust problem these days, and you argue that colleges have oversold the idea of the bachelor’s degree. What do you mean when you say we’ve developed a “cult of the bachelor’s degree?”

Craig: It’s important to recognize that the bachelor’s degree as a phenomenon is relatively recent in American history. Up until just after World War II, fewer than 5 percent of the working adult population had bachelor’s degrees. Today it’s north of 30 percent, and basically we have come to rely on the bachelor’s degree as the sole pathway to a successful career, and particularly one that doesn’t involve working with your hands and a blue-collar vocation or trade, which is what [most] parents want for their children.

 Read the full article about alternatives to higher education by Jeffrey R. Young at EdSurge