As Americans live and work longer, many now find themselves needing to change jobs and careers several times within their lifetimes.
Now, Georgia Institute of Technology has created a new college to serve just these learners. Georgia Tech last week launched its College of Lifetime Learning, which will combine degree programs with non-degree programs, and seeks to educate 114K students by 2030. That would enable the university to double the current number of degrees granted and nondegree students served.
“What we’re hearing is that with the advancing pace of digitization taking place, changing demographics, people working longer, for example, higher ed needs to do something in addition to what it already has been doing” says Nelson Baker, interim dean of the new college.
Baker led the Division of Lifetime Learning before its promotion to an independent college of the university. The upgrade means the unit can hire tenured faculty and award degrees.
The Details: The college will serve two demographics: K-12 students and teachers, and adult learners with career ambitions. About half of the division’s current offerings are online.
Georgia Tech focuses primarily on technology, business, and engineering. The offerings for the new college are not fully developed yet, but will continue in that vein, with a focus on the academic study of learning. For example, Baker says he hopes to offer masters degrees or programs in fields like learning analytics or learning engineering.
A majority of the students in the division’s programs already have a bachelor’s degree and are coming back to college to learn new skills. That will likely remain the dominant student population as the new college grows, though the university also is aiming to reach more workers who don’t already have a bachelor’s and need to develop new skills.
“The programs offered by the new college will not only focus on traditional degree paths but also on lifelong learning opportunities that cater to different stages of careers and lives, increasing competitiveness for employers across the state of Georgia,” Baker says.
The Big Idea: There has been significant private capital and venture philanthropy entering the world of nondegree and alternative credentials, but less intellectual leadership, says Mitchell Stevens, professor of education at Stanford University who is working to build a “science of working learners.” A few institutions, including Arizona State University and Southern New Hampshire University, have made adults a key priority, making it a valuable thing for Georgia Tech to do, he says.
“They are making a clear statement that learning across the life-course needs to be a priority for a research-intensive institution,” Stevens says.
‘Not Just a Hobby’
Alongside course and credential offerings, the new college will conduct research on the process of learning. The inclusion of that aspect of the traditional college model, as well as the focus on studying the institution’s own learners and technology, makes the college notable, says Kemi Jona, vice provost for online education and digital innovation at the University of Virginia.
“It formalizes what might have been successful but less well-recognized efforts at the university into something that has a distinct identity,” Jona says.
The college will build off of work Georgia Tech has been doing for a decade around Affordable Degrees-at-Scale, Baker says. That program includes a masters of computer science that is $7K per year and now has 12K graduates. The university offers similar programs in analytics and cybersecurity, representing about 22K students annually.
A shrinking population of high school graduates likely to attend college has driven many institutions to create programs for adult students, in the hopes of drawing in a new population.
But Georgia Tech isn’t seeing a dip in undergraduate enrollment, Baker says. Since 2019, the total number of degree-seeking students has increased 44%. The number of students in nondegree programs has more than doubled, to just over 71K.
“It’s really exciting to see an institution as big as Georgia Tech, to see a research institution, really lean into serving adult students,” says Ivy Love, senior policy analyst for education and labor at New America.
Tenured faculty have already been involved in the division thus far, designing course and program offerings. The new college will have the ability to hire new tenured faculty. It was also approved by the faculty government.
“It probably does slow down the process and people wonder why it takes so long sometimes,” Baker says. “But that’s why universities have the quality that they do. They vet ideas through faculty and the faculty feedback, the faculty comments, the faculty input makes all things better.”
The Kicker: The new college legitimizes the idea of the lifetime learner as a student of higher education, Jona says.
“It’s a brilliant move to sort of have Georgia Tech stand up and say, ‘this is a real thing now,’” he says. “‘This is not just a hobby.’”