Three in Four Students Prefer Universities Offering Skills-Based Certifications Alongside Degrees

New data has revealed that three-quarters of students prefer joining a university that, along with awarding them a traditional degree, provides skills-based certifications known as ‘micro credentials’. The trend underlines the growing demand for educational programs that combine practical, job-relevant skills with academic qualifications.

Currently, more than half of the universities incorporated micro-credentials within their curricula, and 75 percent of those institutions claimed that micro-credential offerings make it easier for the number of students to grow and join their institutions. It also appears that micro-credentials foster student retention. Of the previous dropouts, 75 percent said that if micro-credentials existed, they would actively engage in continuing their studies again.

Coursera, one of the most prominent global online learning platforms, has conducted this research, surveying 1,058 higher education leaders from 852 institutions across 89 countries. Coursera is focused on job-focused courses, with more than 148 million learners around the world and 125 Professional Certificates, according to Coursera.

Whereas most of the educational leaders appreciate the benefits they confer on micro credentials: indeed, 97% of them think that micro credentials improve long-term career prospects, adoption is however not level. European institutions offer fewer micro credentials for academic credit, 46%, which is at the bottom, and the North American institutions also are behind this process with only 59% providing academic credit for micro credentials, while the world’s average is at 53%.

Some of the barriers to wider integration include a lack of familiarity with micro credentials at 50%, lack of alignment with existing curriculum at 45%, and quality at 35%. On the positive side, there is light in this firmament because 82% of institutions that do not offer micro credentials indicated plans for offering in the next five years. Resource allocation was reported as the major problem by 53%, followed by transformation of curriculum at 50% and gaining faculty buy-in at 47%.

This is particularly crucial in the way that higher education needs to better align with employer requirements, and micro-credentials take this into their core competency–their ability to provide useful skills quickly makes them a really excellent add-on to a traditional degree,” said Nikolaz Foucaud, Coursera Managing Director EMEA.

“I think micro-credentials deliver just those important industry-specific skills that really show our passion for student success and career development,” Jennifer Walsh, Chief Strategy Officer at Hawai’i Pacific University, added.