- At a moment when many question the value of seeking a college degree, a Gardner Policy Institute report reaffirms the broad benefits of higher education.
- Data reveals that Utahns who attain higher education are enjoying greater incomes and economic stability.
- Report also emphasizes that an educated citizenry is a boon to society.
Last year, Pew Research Center reported that only 1 in 4 Americans reported it’s “extremely or very important” to have a four-year college degree in order to get a well-paying job in today’s economy.
Meanwhile, 40% said it was “not too or not important at all.”
Time-honored convictions that higher education opens doors to prosperity, greater health and happiness appears to be taking a hit.
But research recently gathered by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute affirms that claiming a college degree in Utah is a demonstrable method for earning more cash, enjoying stable employment and social mobility — and garnering several other positive individual and societal benefits
The Beehive State is an apt location to study the benefits of higher education.
Utah, according to the Gardner report, boasts the country’s third most well-trained and educated workforce.
Just over 61% of Utahns have attained some form of postsecondary education — including a degree or some form of certification or certificate. That’s well above the national average of approximately 54%
Only Colorado and Massachusetts have a higher percentage than Utah.
Just over 25% of Utah’s working-age adults have claimed a bachelor’s degree — while 13% have earned a graduate or professional degree.
“My view is that there has never been a more important time for a well-trained and educated citizenry in the state of Utah,” said Natalie Gochnour, director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, at a recent virtual media gathering to discuss the higher education report.
Gochnour then identified the distinction between “training” and “education.”
Training, she said, is what institutions of higher learning do to help people get a job.
“Education includes a much broader umbrella of intellectual and personal development that’s deemed essential to civil society.
“Democracy requires a well-informed citizenry — and at Utah’s institutions of higher learning, we do both.”
The Gardner study lists several key findings suggesting higher education still checks several “quality of life” boxes for individuals — and for society:
1. Individuals with higher educational attainment enjoy greater incomes, economic stability and quality of life.
In 2023, the average median earnings for Utahns, ages 25 and older, was $52,000.
Median earnings for Utahns with a graduate or professional degree was $92,000 — significantly higher for those whose highest level of education was a bachelor’s degree, $63,000.
Meanwhile, the median earnings for high school graduates was $41,000.
“We also see that poverty rates decline with years of education,” said Andrea Thomas Brandley, the institute’s senior education analyst.
Less than 4% of adult Utahns with a bachelor’s degree or higher are living below the poverty level. Conversely, the rate is almost 10% of Utahns with only a high school diploma.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in 2023 for Utah adults — ages 25 to 64 — with a bachelor’s degree or higher was under 2%. For high school graduates, the number jumped to 3.5%
The Gardner report also includes “life quality” measurements for Utah adults who had completed college degrees — and compared them to their Utah counterparts who had not completed a college degree.
Almost 80% of Utah adults with degrees reported being happy. That was 16% higher on the “happy” scale than Utahns without a degree. Those differences were somewhat similar to life-quality metrics such as “healthy” and “confident in future career success.”
“These ‘measures of life quality’ also show a significant difference based on degree completion,” said Thomas Brandley.
2. Society derives valuable benefits from an educated citizenry.
The Gardner Institute report indicated that Utahns with more education were often more involved in their communities.
They volunteered more, said Thomas Brandley, “and had higher voter participation.”
They are also far less likely to receive public assistance.
“For example, if you look at Medicaid, only about 11% of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher participate in Medicaid; about three times that many for those with a high school diploma are on Medicaid,” said Thomas Brandley. “Nearly half of those people without a high school diploma are participating in Medicaid.”
And higher education remains a wise community investment.
Estimates indicate that every $1 the state invests in public higher education returns $3 in tax revenues from increased wages of Utah college and university graduates, the report noted.
“Not only are those with higher educational attainment less likely to participate in public assistance, but they’re also more likely to be contributing more to taxes — which helps fund that public assistance,” noted Thomas Brandley.
“So this really helps to benefit society as a whole.”
3. Higher education benefits Utah’s economy through workforce development, job and business creation and research innovation.
Almost a quarter-million students were enrolled in Utah’s public higher education institution for the 2024-25 school year.
“These graduates will generate increased earnings, economic activity and tax revenue,” the report noted.
The need for skilled labor is rising in Utah’s emerging high-tech industries — and an estimated 72% of graduates from the state’s higher education institutions received “high yield” degrees in 2024, filling critical Utah workforce needs.
Meanwhile, the report added, Utah’s higher ed research institutions such as the University of Utah and Utah State University draw outside research funding, “fueling innovation and leading to the creation of new companies, high-impact innovation and field-changing discoveries.”
4. Higher education helps generate many of Utah’s most differentiating and acclaimed characteristics.
Utah’s economic performance, according to the Gardner Institute, generally ranks among the nation’s best. And it’s one of the country’s most economically diverse states while fostering proven upward mobility.
“We also see that Utah ranks second among states in the share of households in the middle class, and this is defined as the percent of households that make between two thirds and double the median household income,” said Thomas Bradley.
Meanwhile, Utah possesses greater income equality than any other state — while “ranking first for both formal volunteerism and informal helping among all 50 states,” the report noted.
Informal helping, explained Thomas Bradley, “is defined as the estimated share of residents who exchange favors with neighbors and do things like house sitting, watching each other’s children and lending tools to each other.”
Utah also ranks No. 1 in the nation with the highest social capital index.
“We define social capital as these networks of trust, collaboration, the ability to prevent and solve problems,” said Gochnour. “And in many respects, it’s it’s an educated populace that gives you that ability to work so productively, one with another
Continually improving Utah’s higher education system
Geoffrey Landward, the state’s Commissioner of Higher Education, joined the virtual media event to discuss the Gardner report findings.
He noted that his biggest challenge is to communicate to the Legislature, students and the citizens of Utah “that higher education is a high-value investment — and that it continues to justify the level of investment that we see from the Legislature and from those who contribute.”
The data included in the Gardner report, Landward added, reaffirms the positive effects of high education on, say, not only getting a good job — but also on essential quality-of-life indicators such as happiness and innovation.
Despite Utah’s enviable higher education data, there’s no time for complacency, according to the commissioner.
“It’s incumbent upon (Utah’s) system of higher education to look for ways to ensure that we’re constantly reviewing how we’re investing our dollars, what programs we’re investing in and how we can do a better job of meeting the needs of the students and of the state.”