How Higher Education Translates into National Wealth - Degrees of Success

The ultimate value of education is evident over time versus one degree or one college at a time. Too often, people focus on the single value of a tuition bill, one degree, or one college. This perspective is anticipated when considering how to invest on a short-term basis. However, when considering the value of investment over time, you will find no greater investment than in educating a family, a community, a city, a region, or an entire nation.

Evaluating the cost of a single college degree is like determining the value of one bumble bee that produces honey: the value of both is difficult to see. According to the most recent data, a single person obtaining a bachelor’s degree will earn $2.8M more in their 35-year work career than someone without a college degree[i]. The significance of that one person’s earning potential is difficult to measure. However, against the backdrop of an entire community, city, region, or nation. The same is true of that one bumble bee comparison until you step back and discover that bees are an essential part of our agriculture, pollinating many fruits, nuts, and vegetables; their existence directly impacts food security. In fact, one out of three bites of our daily food is possible because of bumble bees[ii]. Imagine evaluating the value of bees by staying focused on the one that just bit you, or landed on your plate of food.

The same principle of measuring the whole of education reveals the incredible value of educational investment for a society, whether it is a family, city, region, or nation. Enough evidence shows that any community’s wealth, productivity, and success are directly linked to education. We will use a few simple examples that illustrate this reality. The value of education is cumulative over time, and the overall value a society places on education.

In the Trillion Dollar World of Endowment Funds infographic[iii] shown below, you can see that the wealth within a country, when measured by its ability to have philanthropy (endowment funds) for its communities and stakeholders. You will quickly notice that most entities holding the endowment funds are educational institutions. You will also note that the majority are in the United States. Over time, education will define a country's outcomes versus viewing the value of investment one degree at a time. Many educational institutions mentioned within the infographic have existed for 100-225 years.

These prevalent educational institutions continue to show their growth over time, versus one college degree at a time. However, it takes one degree at a time to begin the journey that education ultimately produces. One degree at a time helps a single person earn a living that allows them to give back to the place they now feel has invested in their own personal wealth. It is unsurprising, then, that many of these wealthy people who supported their educational institutions by earning their academic degree(s) give back, as they feel that the academic institution(s) invested in them a far greater value than they gave. There is a beautiful value at both ends of the education ecosystem. Remember that each individual who graduated with a college degree has an average of $2.8M more to invest during their life-time.

Harvard University alone has more financial resources than the?entire GDP?of countries like Serbia, Bolivia, El Salvador, and Slovenia. When just one educational institution produces that much wealth, it speaks to the value of education investment over time. Now factor in the millions of graduates of the 3,900 colleges and universities in the United States who each made between $1 million to $3.6 million more in their careers, based on when they graduated college. Lastly, for icing on top of the education cake, factor in the tens of thousands of education graduates who developed patents and inventions that propelled the trillion-dollar business like Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, among others. With less than 4% of the world's population, the United States has invested in education and individually borrowed against the future to become one of the world's most educated and wealthy societies.?

If we only examine the finances of what education produces, we may miss the real reasons why education is so vital to society. The wealth gained from education includes being productive, healthy, and ultimately successful as a society.

For example, the information in Diagram-1 below illustrates that the education of a nation (society) directly correlates to a nation's productivity. This same type of illustration has been repeated in numerous resources for the past 33 years. If you click on the first diagram[iv], you will see the truth serum of education attainment to productivity, known as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), persists. Just as bumble bees are essential for the security of the food chain, education is critical to a nation's productivity. Not only are institutions of higher learning adding direct value, but the exponential growth of a country occurs after a season of educational investment. In fact, in 2021 alone, the total value of university endowments increased by 35%.

Diagram 1 – Correlation of Educational Attainment to Gross Domestic Product

The ability of a country to produce products directly correlates to the educational attainment of its society. This connection is why it breaks my heart to see so many people insist they cannot afford an education. The reality and truth is that we cannot afford not to invest in education, even if it takes longer to complete a single degree. More importantly, any company or government leader(s) cannot afford to not invest in education. While it may sound awkward to replace the cliché ‘The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer’?with?‘the educated get wealthier, as the uneducated get less wealthy,’?the correlation between education and wealth is too closely linked not to associate this type of cliché’.

Diagram-2, provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, illustrates the combination of weekly earnings and probability of being unemployed across the spectrum of educational degrees earned. As you step back, imagine who is more likely and capable of giving back to society. This ability through educational attainment is the very point of the education ecosystem, and how the wealth of the top 50 endowments across college institutions has reached the trillion-dollar level.??

Diagram 2 – Educational Attainment to Earnings and Unemployment

I can also attest to the fact that I have given to three university’s endowments that my family members could not contribute. I have never been unemployed, and my children each have a college degree. My granddaughters are already six and nine and talking about graduating one day from Oral Roberts University[v]. My wife Pam and I have also given funds to a college in our parents' names, as we knew they would never have the means. It was our way of saying 'education truly matters,' and we are willing to pay it backward and forward so others can see the value of an education. More importantly, it is a statement that their families, communities, cities, regions, and nations can thrive when education is seen as an investment. However, that investment needs to be viewed in a broader context than the costs of my college degree(s), as that is only the beginning of the educational journey.

I and millions of others have believed in education to the point that it has changed a nation. Yet, daily, I find myself pleading with prospective students and parents not to panic over the costs of one college degree by seeing it as the best investment on planet Earth. It is the best value investment, even for a selfish person who wants to know that the return on investment is an average of $2.8 million more in their working career. However, the person who loves giving back to their family, community, region, and nation finds that they are a vital instrument in the redistribution of wealth worldwide.

The simple principle of being a blessing to others is multiplied with you have the wealth, health, and success of being educated in the field of your dreams. For this very reason that Oral Roberts University is opening up our traditional campus of over 150 programs with a Virtual modality that allows everyone the opportunity to attend classes from anywhere in the world.

[i] The College Payoff: The College Payoff: Education, Occupations, Lifetime Earnings - CEW Georgetown

[ii] The Bee Conservancy; The Bee Conservancy - Est. 2009 in Response to the Bee Crisis

[iii] Endowment Funds; Ranked: The World’s Top 50 Endowment Funds (visualcapitalist.com)

[iv] Our World Data; Average years of schooling vs. GDP per capita, 2017 (ourworldindata.org)

[v] Oral Roberts University; Oral Roberts University | Spirit-Empowered Christian Education (oru.edu)