Whose job is it to save higher education?

I’ve spent more than a decade marketing and branding universities.

It’s given me a unique glimpse into their future.

It’s a dark vision of slow but inevitable collapse driven by toxic tuition debt that kneecaps students’ futures. By amenity arms races that focus on building facilities that look like Westins. By the burning scrutiny of an economy that is tilting more towards knowledge and skill specialization than degrees.

For schools to survive, they have to prove their commitment to students doesn’t end at the edge of a graduation stage’s steps.

It doesn’t have to be that way. After years as an adjunct professor, I’ve developed a hypothesis: For schools to survive, they have to prove their commitment to students doesn’t end at the edge of a graduation stage’s steps. Schools must continue to show their alumni that life after college is more than a degree and handshake.

The solution is embarrassingly simple: Invest in comprehensive, lifelong career services.

Instead of focusing huge dollars on student recruitment, how about reallocating funds to plain old job recruiting?

Create innovative career support centers. Bring in executive search professionals and headhunters. Bring in diversity and equity advocates. Bring in life coaches and resume consultants. Bring in practitioners to continually check-and-balance curricula through the lens of social and economic value.

And make this service available to graduates for life — for free.

Universities can’t lean on the brand, the degree, or the campus experience anymore. These things are a shiny currency that will depreciate and tarnish over time if it’s not a part of a more meaningful investment.

For schools to be more, they must do more. Stop measuring the worth of students and alumni in dollars and donations and start seeing them as connections and opportunities. Truly embrace the role of lifelong career recruiter and tap into the intellectual horsepower and industry influence that lie within a school’s unique network.

Provide real value for life.

If not, we’ll all be looking for jobs one day.