The Value of Education: A Comprehensive Look at the Benefits Associated with Higher Education

What is the value of higher education? Arriving at a satisfactory answer largely depends on properly weighing the benefits that fl ow from higher education. With recent headlines asking Is College Worth It? and reports describing the looming student loan crisis, the public dialogue on higher education must include the broad array of benefits that accompany educational attainment. Increasingly, discussions of higher education’s value have focused on the private economic benefits of education to individuals, often to the exclusion of broader measures that include public economic and social benefits.