Return on Performance in Higher Education

By Joseph Urgo. Return on investment (ROI) is the latest data fetish to emerge in our ongoing quest to understand why it is we educate ourselves and our children. ROI calculates the cost of a college education and compares that cost to expected earnings by someone who has that educational credential. If a four-year private college degree in History costs $200,000, and the average history major earns $50,000 a year, it takes four years to get that investment back. If a degree in Engineering costs the same, but the engineer earns $100,000 a year, the return is faster. And if the degree costs less, say $60,000 at a public college, that too can speed up the return. More...