YSU eyes degrees

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Several initiatives at Youngstown State University aim to increase the numbers of people earning degrees.

YSU and Ohio’s other public four-year universities have launched a wide range of initiatives designed to increase efficiency, affordability and degree attainment.

“We must increase student success because Ohio faces a severe talent gap that threatens the state’s economic competitiveness and growth,” said Jim Tressel, YSU president. “We have a significant shortage of working-age adults with the college-level credentials required to fill the majority of current and future jobs. To thrive and prosper, Ohio must dramatically increase education-attainment levels, and that creates an imperative to enhance higher education quality, efficiency and affordability.”

Last spring, the state established an Ohio Attainment Goal: By 2025, 65 percent of working-age adults in Ohio will have a degree, certificate or other credential of value in the marketplace. Achieving that goal will require Ohio to produce 1.7 million additional adults with post-secondary credentials. At the current rate, only 43 percent of working-age Ohioans will attain the needed degree, certificate or credential by 2025.

The state’s public universities are making progress. The number of degrees awarded by Ohio’s public four-year universities increased by 20 percent between 2010 and 2015. Degree attainment is increasing despite the continued negative economic environment that has inhibited state and university budgets. While state funding has increased 7.1 percent since 2014, Ohio’s funding per student is 27 percent below the national average.