Ohio’s higher education system faces new and persistent challenges. College enrollment continues to decline along with birth rates, and public trust in higher education has waned as alternative credentialing options have become more popular. The state’s colleges and universities must adapt to survive. The Buckeye Institute’s Transforming Higher Education in Ohio offers a roadmap for student-centered reforms, emphasizing the need to realign institutional incentives to improve workforce outcomes, curb rising administrative costs, and pursue innovative partnerships with online program managers to better prepare students for jobs more cost-effectively.

The Student-First Imperative

Today’s student bodies are a diverse blend of adult learners balancing jobs and families, part-time enrollees seeking flexible schedules, and rural residents far from campus hubs. Traditional higher education models built for recent high school graduates living in dormitories are increasingly misaligned with emerging realities, and employers now demand skills that many institutions struggle to deliver. To adapt, Ohio higher education policymakers must prioritize accessibility, affordability, and post-graduate success.

The Department of Higher Education is already shifting some of the state share of instruction (SSI) subsidies that flow to public universities to focus more on post-graduate outcomes and employment. Unfortunately, the SSI formula still does not encourage enough competition for students among universities and community colleges. Ideally, higher education savings accounts or vouchers, would allow students to take state dollars to their preferred trade school, apprenticeship, community college, or four-year university. In the interim, the General Assembly should use the biennial budget to spur competition between community colleges and four-year universities by financially rewarding schools with the best debt-to-income ratios, job placement statistics, and loan repayment rates.

As part of the reform effort, Ohio must reduce administrative bloat on campus. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni examined spending at more than 1,500 colleges and universities between 2010 and 2018, and found that noninstructional expenses grew faster than instructional costs. The state should cap administrative expenses at public institutions to help reduce the overall cost of a college degree.

OPMs: Innovation with Oversight

Online program managers (OPM) are third-party companies that help colleges design, market, and deliver online programs to meet the varied, evolving demands of today’s student bodies. They can offer schools new technology platforms and improve student recruitment and support systems. With OPMs, smaller Ohio colleges with limited resources can rapidly expand online course offerings to scale programs better aligned with in-demand fields like healthcare, information technology, and advanced manufacturing.

Some high-profile mistakes have sullied their reputation, but OPMs can be valuable tools for meeting student needs when used strategically and responsibly. A poorly managed OPM partnership based on a “free college” model risks violating federal financial aid rules and leaving students stranded, so earnest oversight of such programs and partnerships remains necessary. Nevertheless, overreacting to a single but significant failure, risks stifling needed progressive reforms. Current legislative proposals authorize OPM partnerships for private universities but would likely restrict and discourage such arrangements at state schools. 

A better approach would make OPM partnership rules the same for public and private universities. Such rules would include: requiring 30-day notice to the higher education chancellor before entering into an OPM contract; sending the chancellor copies of such contracts for compliance review before signing; public disclosure of any OPM partnership; and authorizing universities to terminate OPM agreements for failing to align with the college’s approved curriculum. The chancellor would not and should not have the authority to terminate OPM contracts directly, and the statute should clarify that higher OPM use will not automatically trigger a “fiscal watch” that could have a chilling effect on OPMs and innovation.

Meeting the Moment

Higher education reform requires embracing responsible innovation to improve student success. Ohio’s workforce shortages in nursing, engineering, and trade labor demand a higher education system that adapts to declining enrollment and rising alternatives. Aligning state subsidies with post-graduate outcomes, reducing administrative costs, and regulating OPM partnerships wisely are commonsense reforms that can help Ohio, and its students overcome some of the challenges they now face. 

Greg R. Lawson is a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute.