The bachelor’s degree has long been accepted as a signal of specialized skills and suitability for positions with more responsibilities or higher cognitive demands. However, in the past few decades, employers have increasingly demanded four-year degrees for low- and middle-skill jobs that non-degree holders are already doing well. This phenomenon, whereby employers list as a prerequisite credentials they don’t need, is known as degree inflation.

Recent research from Harvard Business School highlights the deleterious effect degree inflation has on the middle class in particular, increasing underemployment and keeping millions of less-credentialed, but qualified, individuals from participating in and bolstering the economy. Degree inflation also inflicts considerable hidden costs on the very employers that perpetuate the practice, lengthening time-to-hire, increasing turnover, and increasing labor costs unnecessarily.

Not that traditional higher ed is complaining. As the main suppliers of bachelor’s degrees, four-year colleges and universities have benefited tremendously from the general association between more lucrative employment and their most popular product. Between 1987 and 2016, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded almost doubled, while tuition and fees increased more than fourfold at four-year institutions in that same span.

There are signs that the landscape is getting complicated for many higher ed institutions, however. Since 2011, undergraduate enrollments have declined, and those skyrocketing tuition numbers have drawn increasing criticism while generating only meager increases in revenue.

Read the full article about degree inflation and implications on higher ed by Richard Price at Christensen Institute.