Colleges and universities will need to step up their game to produce the number of data scientists and computer engineers the U.S. will need, writes Chris Shank. Getty Images photo.
Though the Biden administration will depart the national stage in roughly two months’ time, two pieces of legislation it helped spearhead may impact Maryland, and the broader country, for generations to come.
Maryland is home to one of the most robust systems of public and private colleges and universities in the nation. As such, our state is well positioned to experience the benefits associated with major labor-related legislation passed by this administration like the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Our challenge in Maryland over the next few years will be to develop an ecosystem large enough to graduate engineers, cybersecurity professionals and data scientists who will be necessary to compete in emerging technological fields like cyber, quantum and artificial intelligence.
There are clouds on the horizon, however, as there are groups who would hold our state back from allowing this talented pool to reach its full potential.
Last month, an advocacy group known as the National Student Legal Defense Network sued the University of Maryland Global Campus over an “incentivized, enrollment-based” pay agreement with the Online Program Manager (OPM) Coursera, which the school contracted with for marketing, curriculum development and other services on select degree programs.
If the suit is successful, it will harm students in Maryland and the entire nation, along with our higher education institutions, high-tech industries, and our ability to compete both nationally and internationally.
As the higher education landscape has changed in a post-COVID world, colleges and universities have innovated to meet evolving demand. Some of these changes have involved partnering with private sector companies who hold years upon years of experience in curating curriculum, recruiting students and managing online platforms. The key to the success of growing and dynamic higher learning institutions like UMGC is meeting students where they are in life and offering relevant programs that they can leverage to find employment. This has the added benefit of helping our active-duty and reservist service members and their spouses, along with students in rural counties.
An added advantage to these partnerships is allowing for excellent state-supported schools like UMGC to expand their offerings quickly. This does several things that are laudable.
Firstly, as the employment landscape shifts, schools can be nimble and respond to these trends with curriculum that is relevant. Second, nontraditional students, many who weren’t able to attend four-year colleges earlier in their lives, can be served better and participate in these new, higher paying careers. Thirdly, by bundling services and creating a mutually beneficial partnership with the private sector, the costs to enter into new academic programs are lessened, thus allowing for more opportunities to enter untested markets and offer innovative programs.
This is exactly what we want and need from higher education today. The real beneficiaries are the students and employers who are now able to transition into better-paying jobs and compete in our economy.
The higher education model has changed for the better and is doing exactly what it needs to meet the moment, as these platforms allow students to seek out the exact curriculum, degrees and certifications they need to train them and make them competitive for today’s job market. Unfortunately, reactive forces like those that support this lawsuit would push us back and hamper economic development, job creation and the growing bipartisan goals of our 21st century industrial policy.
And the stakes are high in our nation today.
Nearly 70 years ago, America was caught flat-footed and ill-prepared when the Soviets launched Sputnik. That shock and surprise was turned into something positive, when it inspired a massive investment in education to prevent our nation from being over-matched by our foreign adversaries in the race to reach the cosmos.
We prevailed because of the strength of our workforce and educational systems. I fear internationally we face very similar threats today to our technological superiority.
With their private-sector partners, many institutions, including many in Maryland, are committed to preparing the workforce we will need. We mustn’t let the negative voices of yesteryear derail that progress. We need a modern response that allows innovators in the public and private sectors to bring new people into new workforce pipelines. If reactionary government regulation doesn’t prevent them, these institutions are well-suited to step up to the challenge.
Conversely, if we fail and step backwards into command and control modes that penalize profits and hamper innovation, we cede ground to our foreign adversaries who actively mean to do us harm.