Mastering WA Higher Ed

We’ve posted before about the advancements the HEC Board is making in creating Washington’s new 10-year master plan for higher education, but yesterday I got the inside scoop when HEC Board Chair Bill Grinstein presented it to the College Work Ready Agenda team.

The 41-page plan outlines Washington’s strategy to reverse the trend of low degree attainment in the state (as we’ve previously noted, today’s 25-34 year-olds are actually less educated in terms of college degrees than previous generations) and reduce the number of workers our state is forced to import due to lack of education. To produce the report, the HEC Board collaborated with colleges, educators and community members to make sure the plan truly meets the needs of all of Washington’s economic regions.

I also learned that the master plan includes a set of implementation strategies and goals for state policy, including that, by October 2008, the HEC Board will recommend to the legislature ways to increase access and capacity in Washington colleges and universities. This looks promising as K-12 and the College Work Ready team work to prepare more and more students for a higher education, so stay tuned.

To read the master plan (which was released on Dec. 13) and learn more about the HECB’s policy recommendations for higher education visit their website.