WSCUC Expands Program-Level ROI Metrics in Public Dashboard

In a move that furthers transparency and aligns with growing national interest in postgraduation outcomes, the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) made available a new return on investment metric in its public-facing Key Indicators Dashboard (KID). The Price-to-Earnings Premium (PEP) metric in KID reveals how long it takes graduates of different programs to recover their education costs, allowing students, institutions, policymakers and other stakeholders to compare recovery times both within institutions and against national averages.

“As conversations about the cost and value of higher education continue, we’re responding with data and new pathways for institutions to develop innovative programs that are responsive to today’s student and labor market needs,” said Dr. Maria Toyoda, president of WSCUC. “The expansion of outcomes data in KID provides employers, families, and taxpayers a fuller picture of what students are getting in return for their education investments—drilling down into the program level.”

Already known as a national leader in the use of large-scale data to quantify student success, institutional performance, and financial sustainability, WSCUC is the first institutional accreditor to incorporate program-level ROI metrics like the PEP into its public-facing evaluation tool. WSCUC has built an extensive longitudinal dataset enabling trend analysis and early identification of at-risk institutions.

The PEP metric expands WSCUC’s existing suite of program-level economic indicators available in KID, which already includes graduate earnings, median debt, and debt-to-income ratios. Program-level metrics are benchmarked against national averages, providing users meaningful context for evaluating student outcomes and institutional performance.

WSCUC’s Key Indicators Dashboard helps institutions evaluate their own performance, identify areas for improvement, and measure outcomes against peer institutions across a wide range of indicators. WSCUC recently added the newly-redesigned Carnegie Classifications into KID, providing institutions, researchers and interested publics with improved tools to analyze student earnings outcomes—benchmarked against peer institutions.

“Reliable access to transparent data underpins the outcomes-based model of accreditation that has long differentiated WSCUC’s work,” said Dr. Stephani Huie, vice president and data lead at WSCUC. “The addition of these powerful new metrics into KID enhances our public-facing dashboard with data that helps institutions better understand student outcomes and assess their effectiveness under the Standards.”

The PEP metric was developed by Michael Itzkowitz, a higher education researcher and policy expert and cofounder and president of The HEA Group, a research and consulting agency focused on college access, value, and economic mobility. The metric is calculated by dividing the total net price of a program by the earnings premium of its graduates compared to typical high school graduates aged 25 to 34.

To explore the dashboard and learn more about the PEP metric, visit wsuc.org/KID.