Who Needs College Anymore?
Imagining a Future Where Degrees Won’t Matter
Kathleen deLaski
With a foreword by Robert B. Schwartz
An optimistic yet practical assessment of how postsecondary education can evolve to meet the needs of next-generation learners
With keen insight, Kathleen deLaski reimagines what higher education might offer and whom it should serve in Who Needs College Anymore? In the wake of declining US university enrollment and widespread crises of confidence in the value of a college degree, deLaski urges a mindset shift regarding the learning routes and credentials that best prepare students for success after high school.
The work draws on a decade of design-thinking research from the nonprofit Education Design Lab as well as 150 interviews of educational experts, college and career counselors, teachers, employers, and learners. DeLaski applies human-centered design to higher education reform, engaging the perspective of end users to search for better solutions. She highlights ten top principles based on user feedback and considers how well they are currently being enacted by colleges.
In particular, she urges institutions to better attend to the needs of new-majority learners, often described as nontraditional students, including people from low- or moderate-income backgrounds, people of color, first-generation students, veterans, single mothers, rural students, part-time attendees, and neurodivergent students. She finds ample opportunity for colleges to support learners via alternative pathways to marketable knowledge, including bootcamps, skills-based learning, and apprenticeships, career training, and other types of workplace learning. This work suggests innovation as a means of evolution.
On-sale February 25, 2025
Harvard Education Press
Available in paperback and e-book
Book discussion guides
As I wrote this book, I was amazed at how just sharing the title, Who Needs College Anymore?, sparked a discussion wherever I went. There are so many perspectives, stories, victories, failures, worries, suggestions, and debates. I decided it might be helpful to recommend discussion guides for some of the key stakeholders, as well as families, who want to extend the conversation into their communities as we try to clarify the role of college or redefine it.
Praise for the book
“A captivating read for anyone interested in how our education system can better prepare young people for the workplace and fulfilling careers. DeLaski explores the dizzying array of emerging alternatives to traditional college education and points the way to the most promising solutions.”
—Eugene Scalia, former US Secretary of Labor
“Ask yourself if colleges typically serve students well. Your answer, and Kathleen deLaski’s, is no. Now ask how colleges can put students at the center of their design, policies, and teaching. That’s what deLaski does in powerful and compelling terms. An important read at an important moment.”
—Ted Mitchell, president, American Council on Education
“This book brings human-centered design alive to help families, colleges, high schools, and employers navigate the future. Colleges, especially, should take note of the opportunities to meet the needs of the majority of Americans who do not hold a degree. These learners should not be shut out of ‘good jobs’ in the future, and they don’t have to be.”
—Rufus Glasper, president and CEO, League for Innovation in the Community College, and chancellor emeritus, Maricopa Community College District
“Kathleen deLaski has written just the right book at just the right time. With higher education in turmoil, especially around its role in developing the workforce, she explains a rapidly evolving ecosystem for education and work with clearsighted analysis, supporting data, and compelling stories. This eminently readable book is a must for educators, policymakers, and employers.”
—Paul LeBlanc, former president, Southern New Hampshire University
"It's a very important book. I predict it will make a deep impact on the way people in America think about college and degrees and apprenticeships and work-based learning in 2025."
—Joe Ross, President of Reach University, host of Apprenticeship 2.0