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The Daily Tar Heel

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities recently announced a significant push to increase the number of U.S. graduates — and avoid falling behind other international universities.

Almost 500 public colleges and universities nationwide pledged to increase the number of students graduating from college by more than a quarter, or 3.8 million, by 2025.

The initiative is part of an effort to reach the nation’s goal of 60 percent of adults earning a college degree.

David Dill, a UNC higher education policy professor, said the nation’s proportion of students who graduate from a higher education institution has remained fixed for 30 years.

He said the U.S. is lagging behind other nations such as South Korea, which graduates close to 90 percent of all college-aged students.

“Other leading developed countries have substantially expanded their systems of higher education,” Dill said.

Dill compared the United States’ higher education system to the United Kingdom, which has a university system that only admits top applicants. But he said it is now graduating more students than the U.S.

“The U.K. enrolls a smaller proportion of students, but they all graduate,” he said.

But some worry the goal fails to address one of the core issues of American education — improving the nation’s K-12 schools.

The problem actually resides in secondary education, said Kate Matthews, co-president of the UNC Roosevelt Institute.

“Students aren’t completing college because they aren’t prepared. They get accepted, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are ready for college,” she said.

There needs to be greater communication and integration between universities and high schools, she said.

Dill questioned whether high schools are doing all they’ve done in the past to equip students for college.

Lagging graduation rates are also greatly affected by rising tuition costs as students can no longer afford to attend school, said Cameron Carswell, president of the UNC-system Association of Student Governments.

Matthews said the association should focus on cost first.

“Students should be able to complete college despite the cost,” she said.

But the quality of education should not be sacrificed in order to increase the graduation rate, Carswell said.

“Quality of education should always outweigh the quantity of degrees,” she said.

Matthews said that degrees don’t equate to much if students never learn the skills necessary to be effective members of the workforce.

“Hard skills get you hired, and soft skills get you fired.”

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.

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