Glenn Boyce’s message to the Columbus Rotary Club Tuesday was straight-forward: When it comes to higher education, Mississippi must finish what it starts.
As part of Rotary’s series on higher education, the club welcomed Boyce, commissioner of the state’s Institutions of Higher Learning that governs state-supported universities, during the club’s weekly lunch meeting at Lion Hills Center.
Boyce, who succeeded Mississippi University for Women President Jim Borsig in April 2015, rattled off statistics to paint the picture of the current landscape of higher education in the state. Of the many topics he touched upon, the need for Mississippians to complete college was a major theme.
“Based on what we’ve learned from our Compete to Complete program, we know there are 300,000 people in Mississippi who have some college but haven’t finished their degrees,” Boyce said. “Somehow, we’ve got to find a way to get those people across the finish line.”
Boyce said attaining a college degree will soon be more important than ever, as traditional blue-collar jobs not requiring degrees give way to automation.
“Mississippi’s future economic growth is post-secondary training,” he said. “The simple truth is that if we don’t get Mississippians through college with a degree, our economic growth is going to stagnate. By 2020 — that’s just three years from now — studies show that 65 percent of all new jobs will require a post-second degree or specialized training.”
Boyce noted the state lags behind both regionally and nationally in its percentage of residents with college degrees. Currently, 31.8 percent of Mississippi adults hold degrees compared to 39 percent nationwide.
“We have to close that gap and close it exponentially,” Boyce said. “We’re too far behind for small steps to make a difference if we’re going to be competitive.”
The good news is that the state has shown some significant progress, he said. The number of bachelor’s degrees is up by 7.7 percent over the past five years.
Educating residents is one thing, though. Keeping them is another important issue, Boyce said.
“You hear a lot about what’s called ‘The Brain Drain’ in Mississippi,” he said. “It’s disturbing. We’re losing as many as 50 percent of our graduates to other states. It’s not because they don’t love Mississippi. It’s because there aren’t opportunities for them here. If they have the opportunities, they will stay. In fact, we know that Mississippians come back to the state at a high rate when opportunities arise.”
Boyce said identifying the new, high-paying jobs of the future and then training students specifically for those jobs is an essential strategy.
“Thanks to the (IHL) board, we’re starting two bio-medical engineering programs at Mississippi State and Ole Miss,” he said. “We want to create a wave of engineers specially trained for the bio-medical industry and then go after those companies. But we have to create the labor pool of qualified workers before we can go after those companies. We can’t bring in the companies and then train workers.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.