There was a time — not so long ago — when the value of a college degree was self-evident. It was the surest path to opportunity, the assumed next step after high school, a marker of merit and ambition.
Parents planned for it. High schools funneled students toward it. And as a society, we treated college not just as a financial investment, but as a rite of passage, a symbol of upward mobility, and a cornerstone of civic life.
But that consensus is beginning to fracture. Enrollment is down. Public trust is eroding. And for millions of students and families, the basic promise of higher education — that it will lead to a better, fuller, more secure life — now feels uncertain.
This special issue of Deseret Magazine explores three intersecting crises reshaping the future of American higher education: the crisis of cost, the crisis of relevance and the crisis of meaning. For this issue, we asked thought leaders from across the education landscape to engage the most practical — and pressing — questions families now face: Is college worth the price? Will it prepare me for the world of work? And what kind of person will it help me become?
Elder Clark G. Gilbert, commissioner of the Church Educational System for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, opens the issue with a call to re-center higher education on purpose. In a time of rising religious disaffiliation and emotional dislocation, Gilbert argues that faith-based and faith-inclusive universities offer something young people desperately need: a community of belonging, a structure for spiritual exploration and a deeper sense of meaning.
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education (ACE), and Derrick Anderson, the former senior vice president at ACE, write about the broader challenge of relevance. As they see it, the problem isn’t that higher education has nothing to offer — it’s that the sector must evolve. Mitchell and Anderson defend the civic and democratic role of colleges and universities, but argue they must do more to align their programs with the demands of today’s workforce.
Economist Beth Akers offers surprising solutions to the affordability dilemma. She calls it the “ROI problem” — the growing gap between what students pay for college and the real-world value of the degrees they earn. But Akers also offers hope: With better data, clearer expectations and stronger financial literacy, students can still make smart, future-oriented choices.
Finally, David A. Hoag, president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, revisits the crisis of meaning from a campus leadership perspective. He reflects on how colleges once saw themselves as moral communities — places where students could develop not just intellectually but spiritually and ethically. Reclaiming that identity, he argues, may be key to restoring trust and transforming lives.
Together, these essays suggest that it’s not too late to save American higher education. But it will require change, namely institutions that are affordable, relevant and grounded in purpose. And it will require a renewed national conversation about what college is for — not just in economic terms, but in moral ones too.
- Clark G. Gilbert: Learning with purpose
- Ted Mitchell and Derrick Anderson: A tradition of reform
- Beth Akers: Making education pay
- David A. Hoag: The courage to believe
This story appears in the September 2025 issue of DeseretMagazine. Learn more about how to subscribe.