No matter which path students or professionals decide to take, obtaining a master's degree in the high-growth field of information systems or specifically business analytics has big benefits.

Many adult learners enrolling online for the first time may be somewhat apprehensive about online education. After all, their only experience of learning has been in traditional, face-to-face settings. Other adult learners expect it to be fun, fast, and friendly.

To watch the TV ads, one might think that earning a post-secondary degree online is easier than traditional classroom study. Certainly, it is true that one might do a lot of work in one's pajamas. But these enticements do not capture the full picture of what online students encounter.

We often overlook other benefits to higher education: quality of life improvements that deserve to be brought into focus, whether you're on the fence about going back to school or are just having a hard time appreciating the degree you already have.

Many of the students who enroll in developmental classes are promising students, bright and capable of college-level work. The issue for a number of them is they do not know how to prepare for college -- and just as importantly, their families do not know how to prepare for college.

Possession of a college degree today is as important as holding a high school diploma was a century ago. Today, undergraduate education should be open to all those academically qualified -- and at no cost. Public education must be truly public up at least through the bachelor's degree.

What if the "official" graduation rate doesn't give the full picture of how many students graduate? As things now stand, the current rate calculation doesn't include students who transfer into a college and graduate.

Is that true? Are thousands of students getting painted into a corner by their degrees? The real truth is: It's not whether your degree is marketable. It's whether YOU market it!

Business leaders will admit freely that they value the foundation that a liberal arts education provides; in fact, a liberal arts background is the edge that secures the applicant the job. What business leaders have forgotten to do, however, is to say so.

While the phrase caveat emptor is a necessary one to consider in picking colleges and degree programs, the Great Recession shouldn't claim the idea that higher education is a ticket to a better future as one of its victims.

As a lifelong educator and current chancellor of the country's largest system of public higher education, I know a thing or two about whether a college degree is "worth it" given the cost and time commitments associated with getting one in today's struggling economy.

Higher education faces a perception problem that grows each day because of the confluence of politics, the media, consumerism, and marketing and communication false starts. The end result has put higher education on the defense.

Think of all the different variations on how an entrepreneur can found a business -- how much of that do you think is possible to pack into a four-year degree?

Higher education is a consumption good with benefits, not only to the consumer but society as a whole and, perhaps more importantly for the individual consumer, it's an investment with a great rate of return.

Higher education is a consumption good with benefits, not only to the consumer but society as a whole and, perhaps more importantly for the individual consumer, it's an investment with a great rate of return.