In a time when the value of a college degree is being called into question as never before, Strempel and Handel offer a comprehensive…prescriptive plan for the future of American higher education, with special focus on community colleges. Recommended.

Choice

Although written before the pandemic of COVID-19, Beyond Free College: Making Higher Education Work for 21st Century Students outlines a compelling, research-informed pathway forward for our country. Inspired by models such as StriveTogether and the G.I. Bill, Strempel and Handel issue a clarion call for an immediate strategic national reinvestment in our higher education infrastructure. With a clear focus on degree completion and the cost of producing those degrees, we as a nation are called to re-enact the support provided to our veterans returning from World War Two. The G.I. Bill garnered bipartisan support, and provided tuition dollars, alongside essential life supports for food, housing, and childcare. At this critical time in our nation’s history, as we confront a pandemic and a racial reckoning, the research is unassailable: Education, properly supported and strategically focused, can transform lives, families, and our society.

Nancy L. Zimpher, Chancellor Emeritus, State University of New York

After reading Strempel and Handel’s inspiring book I come away all the more convinced that people who get bachelor’s degrees need to go to colleges that give them. We also need to strengthen our transfer systems and mandate that all public four-year colleges keep at least 20% of their overall enrollment open to two-year college transfers. A “must-read” for those wanting to know how to make higher education work better in the 21st century.

Anthony P. Carnevale, research professor and director, Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown University

If our recent history teaches us anything it is that we support and strengthen all of our colleges and universities when we focus on doing a better job of including the un-included, serving the underserved, and advancing those historically left behind. Only then will we honor the ‘higher’ in higher education. Strempel and Handel’s book, Beyond Free College, gives us the blueprint for an honest, research-informed start.

Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California Emerita

A breakthrough examination of the transfer landscape, Beyond Free College creates a compelling narrative of today’s “neo-traditional student” and their variegated college pathways while urging a collective reinvestment in higher education. Strempel and Handel bring their steadfast advocacy to a complex issue by contextualizing transfer within broader education and economic spheres and create a tangible roadmap for reshaping higher education. This is a must read for scholars, practitioners, leaders, and policy-makers invested in challenging the status quo, ensuring educational equity, and advancing our citizenry.

Janet L. Marling, executive director, National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students (NISTS)