HIGHER ED DIRECTOR: ‘SPEED TO MARKET, CLOSE TO CUSTOMER’

By Rob Moritz/ARKANSAS NEWS BUREAU

LITTLE ROCK — If anyone wants to know why the state needs to increase the number of residents with college degrees, the new director of the state Department of Higher Education can rattle off several reasons.

One is that people with college degrees make substantially more money in the work force than those with just a high school diploma, says Higher Education Director Jim Purcell, who was vice chancellor of strategic planning and analysis for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education before taking his new job in January.

Another is businesses and industries are attracted to states with an educated and highly skilled work force.

Also, the National Governors Association recently made improving higher education as a “major economic strategy of the future” for states.

But probably the most important reason is that Arkansas, which has consistently ranked 49th nationally in the number of college graduates, might be in danger of dropping to the bottom of that dubious list. West Virginia, ranked 50th, has launched a new $50 million “bucks for brains” initiative for higher education research and development.

“If West Virginia spends $50 million, they could actually get ahead of us,” Purcell said.

He is crafting a plan for Arkansas, with a price tag of up to $30 million over two years, not only to increase the number of college graduates, but also to keep those graduates in the state working high-skilled jobs in high-need areas and to build the state’s work force for future economic growth.

“The solution for us is to make sure we have our work force educated,” Purcell said in an interview last week.

He added that any plan he proposes and the Legislature funds is still dependent upon more Arkansas high school students going to college and getting their degrees.

Currently, four out of 100 ninth-grade students in Arkansas eventually earn an associate’s degree and 12 earn a bachelor’s degree within six years of graduating from high school, Purcell said.

“That’s not much of a work force pipeline,” he said.

Gov. Mike Beebe, while promoting the success of the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund last week, singled out the work Purcell did in Oklahoma to move that state from 46th to 42nd in the nation in the number of adults aged 25 and over with bachelor’s degrees.

“He had some major success there,” Beebe said, adding he hopes Purcell can bring the same success to Arkansas.

Borrowing futurist Ed Barlow’s slogan “speed to market and close to customer,” Purcell said his goal is to increase the number and speed in which many college degrees are conferred in the state, and those degrees would be in programs needed immediately in specific areas of the state.

He said his multi-pronged plan is patterned after one Oklahoma phased in over a period of years, but would be designed to fit Arkansas’ needs. It would require efficient programs and initiatives.

To illustrate the need for efficiency, he Purcell noted Arkansas actually had a higher percentage increase in college graduates — 24.7 percent — than Oklahoma — 24.5 percent — from 2001 to 2006.

However, Oklahoma did it with a 10 percent increase in enrollment, while Arkansas did it with a 21 percent increase in enrollment during the five-year period.

“Arkansas did it by expanding the pipeline (of students,) but what we really need is to maximize the productivity of our students,” he said.

One facet of the plan will be financial incentives for the state’s 22 two-year schools and 11 four-year institutions to increase the number of degrees conferred, and the speed in which that is done.

A formula would be based on retention levels, graduation rates and returning students who receive eventually their degrees. The winner would be eligible for additional funds “and bragging rights,” he said.

Oklahoma schools competed for $2 million.

Another key will include increasing access to high-demand programs for nursing and developing “magnet” degree programs, Purcell said.

As far as getting college students to return to school and complete their degrees, Purcell said Oklahoma targeted the 60,000 adults with more than two years of college who did not graduate over the past 10 years.

A recent survey found there are as many as 30,000 Arkansans with more than two years of college who never earned a degree, he said.

Purcell also hopes to work with businesses and colleges around the state to develop a bachelor’s degree program for those students who are close to graduation.

Purcell said in Oklahoma he met with businesspeople to find out what they needed in a college graduate. They said they wanted employees with some courses in accounting, business, research, communications and writing skills.

He said he took the list to eight state schools, which developed an organizational leadership degree.

The degree is available to former college students with more than two years of school who want to go back and finish their degree, he said. The courses are offered at night and online, and the credits can be transferred among participating schools.

Currently 150 former students have returned to school and are working to compete their degrees in less than two years.

Purcell also said Arkansas was one of three states that recently received a $755,100 grant from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education to develop a plan to get former college students back into to class so they can complete their degree.

The “Non-traditional No More’” grant is funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education.

Rep. Bill Abernathy, D-Mena, who is chairman of the Higher Education Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council, said he has been impressed with Purcell so far.

“He has fresh ideas that will stimulate our educational programs in retention, getting people back in school, and helping them get through school,” Abernathy said. “I’m very impressed with the ideas I’ve heard from him.”