Across state legislatures and in Congress, debates are intensifying about the value of funding certain college degree programs – and higher education, more broadly.

The growing popularity of professional graduate degrees over the past several decades – including programs in business administration and engineering management – has reshaped the economics of higher education. Unlike traditional academic graduate programs, which are often centered on research and scholarship, these professionally oriented degrees are designed primarily for workforce advancement and typically charge much higher tuition.

These programs are often expensive for students and are sometimes described as cash-cow degrees for colleges and universities, because the tuition revenue far exceeds the instructional costs.

Some universities and colleges also leverage their brands to offer online, executive or certificate-based versions of these programs, attracting many students from the U.S. and abroad who pay the full tuition. This steady revenue helps universities subsidize tuition for other students who cannot pay the full rate, among other things.

Yet a quiet tension underlies this evolution in higher education – the widening divide between practical, technical training and a comprehensive education that perhaps is more likely to encourage students to inquire, reflect and innovate as they learn.........

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