As lawmakers look to cut “low-performing” programs and reinvest those budgets at Utah’s universities and colleges, a new report says higher education is really valuable.
“Utah is often singled out as one of the highest-performing states in many measures: economic growth, well-being, happiness, innovation,” said the state’s Commissioner of Higher Education Geoffrey Landward. “And what this report says to me is the secret is a strong, thriving higher education system.”
The policy brief came from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and builds on a similar report released last year with updated data.
It says Utah has the third most well-trained and educated workforce in the nation, with 61.5% of adults attaining some kind of post-secondary education, like a certification or a degree. Only Colorado and Massachusetts have higher rates. The report also says Utahns with college degrees have higher median earnings, are less likely to be in poverty and have lower unemployment rates. Since the 1970s, the wage gap between Utah males with a college degree and those without has widened.
“Individuals with higher educational attainment enjoy greater incomes, they enjoy better economic stability and life quality. And we see this across a variety of metrics,” said Andrea Brandley, senior education analyst at the Gardner Policy Institute and the report’s author.
In 2024, 72.2% of Utah System of Higher Education graduates earned high-yield degrees, meaning they’re linked to high-wage/high-demand jobs the paper points out. That number is up slightly from 2022, when 71% received high-yield degrees.
Those with more education also report better general health. And Utahns with a degree or certificate from the state’s 16 public colleges and universities report higher rates of being happy, healthy and confident in future career success compared to those who don't have one.
The benefits also extend to the state as a whole.
Utahns with degrees are more likely to volunteer, vote and pay more in taxes. The state’s higher education system contributed an estimated $12.1 billion in GDP to the state’s economy in 2024, according to the report.
“Higher education really helps generate many of Utah's most differentiating and acclaimed characteristics,” Brandley said. “One of these is Utah's economic performance, which generally ranks among the nation's best.”
Compared to other states, she said Utah has high rates of upward mobility and is one of the most economically diverse states, which contributes to economic stability.
While the report puts forth a strong case for higher education’s value, others don’t see it that way. Landward said one of the biggest challenges he faces in his position is convincing students, citizens and lawmakers that higher education is a worthwhile investment.
“One of the things that we need to be better at, being responsive to, is questions around value.”
Locally and nationally, Landward said people question the value of higher education. Utah’s system can work on keeping costs as low as possible for students, he said, as well as offer more accelerated bachelor’s degrees and more certificate options.
He thinks communication is partly to blame.
“The perceptions around the value of higher education are misaligned with the realities of the value, which is a baffling prospect and one that suggests that the conversations around higher education are conversations focusing on the wrong thing,” Landward said.
Part of the problem is that conversations are focused on social and political issues, he said. That’s only a small piece of what happens on college campuses, but it’s heavily focused on and has undermined people’s trust in higher education. To address that, Landward said higher education needs to be more responsive to those concerns and do a better job of communicating why college is valuable.
“That's why reports like this are so critical and so valuable,” he said. “Because it's just simply the facts and they’re indisputable.”
The Utah Legislature has also questioned the value of certain parts of the higher education system. A 2024 state audit said colleges should cut low-performing programs that aren’t leading to high-paying jobs or are not in high demand.
The big ticket higher education bill on the table, HB265, sponsored by Republican Rep. Karen Peterson, would require schools to cut “inefficient” programs and reinvest that money in high-performing programs. If they don’t, colleges would lose 10% of their state-funded instructional budget. That bill passed in the House and needs one more vote in the Senate as of Feb. 27. Senators tabled the bill Feb. 26 to work on its fiscal note.
The conversation, Landward said, started several months ago and was initially focused on an across-the-board cut. Now that it’s a reinvestment plan, he views it as an opportunity to be more strategic about where they’re investing — which the board of higher education has already been working on.
An ongoing conversation at the capitol is about which programs are being targeted. If the bill passes, the Board of Higher Education will need to drill down on specific evaluation metrics. After that, individual college leaders will use the information to create reinvestment plans that will need approval from state leaders. Some faculty members are worried this will mainly target the liberal arts.
“When we talk about HB265, I've been very vocal about saying that it can't be just occupation-specific investments, that it has to be investments in skills that make individuals who graduate from institutions valuable in the workplace,” Landward said.
A 2024 study commissioned by the state’s System of Higher Education found employers who hired Utah graduates were often satisfied with their technical skills; but many reported graduates lacked “durable skills” or soft skills, like communication and work ethic. Landward said those skills often come from general education courses and if students don’t see that connection, “that’s a failure on our part.”
HB265 l was amended in the Senate to emphasize that colleges need to “retain a core general education curricula that enables students to acquire critical thinking, problem-solving, citizenship, communication, and other durable skills.”
Natalie Gochnour, director of the Gardner Policy Institute, said students receive training and education at higher education institutions. The training helps them get jobs and the education “includes a much broader umbrella of intellectual and personal development that's deemed essential to civil society.” With technological advancements, she said, the economy is changing from an industrial one to one that is knowledge-based.
Gochnour’s view is that “there has never been a more important time for well-trained and educated citizenry in the state of Utah.”
Editor’s note: KUER is a licensee of the University of Utah but operates as an editorially independent news organization.
