Business Insider recently spoke with Emma Dorn, global education practice manager at McKinsey & Company, who cowrote the firm'son rising toll of America's student debt crisis. Dorn assisted in developing analytical tools and training programs for consultants who work in the education sector. She also helped McKinsey define its global strategy across higher education.
Here are the four biggest trends that will shift how colleges operate over the next five years because of COVID-19, according to Dorn. About 60% of medium-income students are making progress toward repaying their debt within three years. The percentage falls to 43% of low-income students.of publicly available data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the US Department of Education, the total student debt in the US is now higher than the country's credit card debt.
Debt has increased by 45% over the last decade once you adjust for inflation. Repayment rates have gone down from 75% to 57% in just eight years, Dorn said. The student-loan borrower system is becoming unsustainable, and young professionals are not purchasing houses or starting families because they're being crushed by student debt. In 2018, 35% of students in the US incorporated online courses to their curriculum, Dorn said. But now, e-learning rates are at 100%.
"We're going to see more differentiated models going forward, where universities will be thinking more about what is needed for students to succeed," Dorn said. While some students might want to be on campus all the time, others might want to be fully virtual, or a mix.