Is a college degree still valuable?

From a “practical perspective,” yes. A diploma can open doors to higher pay over the course of your life.

“On average, after 10 years, the median UCI student is making about $106,000 a year with very little debt. Most of them, within a few years, are earning more than their parents,” UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman said Thursday afternoon. Gillman was part of a panel of experts who gathered at The Pacific Club in Newport Beach to weigh in on a degree’s worth.

“But families are right to ask hard questions (of) higher education leaders about the value of these degrees — about cost, about transparency and outcomes,” Gillman said.

Those are natural questions, especially when college graduates are entering an early career market that’s “noticeably tighter than five years ago,” characterized by “lower turnover, AI compressing junior roles, longer on-ramps,” said moderator Sherry Main, who serves as UCI’s assistant vice chancellor for public affairs.

With those factors in mind, the central question was rephrased: Can a college degree still give graduates an edge?

From an employer perspective, yes, a degree makes a candidate stand out, said OC Business Council President and CEO Jeff Ball. But job qualifications — even for early-career job seekers — don’t rest entirely on the backs of diplomas.

“We have shifted from an attitude of looking at degrees as a credential and more to looking at degrees plus capabilities,” Ball said.

“When we think about how the market is changing, we need our employees to be dynamic. And the more educated they are, the more they have that foundation, the more they’re going to be able to adjust with us.”

“Capability” isn’t just about deciphering Chaucer or Dante, Concordia University President Michael Thomas joked. Education is about shaping well-rounded people.

“Although we want to help them get their first job, it’s really about lifetime development,” Thomas said. “There’s very few places left in our society where people mingle with ‘the other’ — very few places left where that kind of synergy happens.”

Ronald Rochon, president of Cal State Fullerton, agreed. A degree’s worth, Rochon said, is inextricable from “the possibility of travel, of meeting people with different languages, different perspectives, learning how to sit down and listen and engage in those conversations.”

Panelists also agreed that colleges are critical for the world beyond the students, professors and administrators.

Universities, UCI’s Gillman said, are “an amazing contribution to the well being of the community.” Gillman noted that his school’s health science and academic programs are training nurses, pharmacists and public health officials, and that UCI is engaged in research that brings innovation and hundreds of millions of dollars into the region.

Other school and business leaders echoed that point.

Still, some issues are prompting complex questions about the financial value of a degree. Artificial intelligence seeping into classrooms and industries, junior roles becoming more competitive, and the rising cost of a diploma are changing the equation.

But Gillman suggested money isn’t the only — or even the best — measure of a diploma’s value.

“I still think that the most reliable path for opportunity and good outcomes, but also an enhanced life, with greater interest, is to spend time at these wonderful institutions.”