If you were building a public university from scratch in Mississippi, what outcomes should a taxpayer expect?
You should expect a university that educates Mississippians.
You should expect students to graduate on time.
You should expect graduates who then stay and work in Mississippi.
You should expect strong earnings after graduation.
And you should expect all of this without excessive student debt.
These expectations are measurable, and at The W, they are being exceeded:
n Enrollment: 86% of W students are Mississippians (No. 1 public in Mississippi).
n Degree efficiency: The W awards 33 degrees per 100 undergraduate full-time equivalent students (No. 1 public in Mississippi).
n Workforce retention: 77% of W graduates are working in Mississippi three years after graduation (No. 1 public in Mississippi).
n Earnings: The W graduates who received Title IV federal aid earn approximately $63,197 (in 2025 dollars) four years after graduation (No. 1 public in Mississippi).
n Affordability: The W graduates carry a median federal student loan debt of just $15,000 (No. 1 public in Mississippi and #1 among regional universities in the South).
So why do these numbers matter? Graduates who accumulate little or no debt, stay in the state, and earn competitive salaries can begin contributing to Mississippi’s economy sooner and more substantially. This strengthens our communities and returns value to the taxpayers who invested in their education.
This return on student and taxpayer investment has also been recognized nationally. Last year, Washington Monthly ranked The W the No. 1 university (public or private) in Mississippi in its list of Best Colleges for Your Tuition (and Tax) Dollars.
If these numbers matter, it’s also worth asking how they were achieved. In other words, what kind of education produces results like these, not just at graduation, but across an entire working lifetime? One answer lies in a core mission of The W: the liberal arts.
A liberal arts education is grounded in a simple yet powerful idea: freedom. Students should be free to think, free to learn and free to adapt. This type of learning builds strong analytical, communication and problem-solving abilities, among the most durable skills in today’s workforce.
That durability will become increasingly important as artificial intelligence transforms almost every field. AI can automate tasks and accelerate processes, but it cannot replace human judgment, creativity or critical thinking. In an AI-driven, relationship-based economy, the most valuable employees will be those who can ask better questions, analyze information to make decisions, build connections with others and adapt to change more quickly.
The liberal arts do not compete with workforce development. The liberal arts are workforce development.
They prepare graduates not just for their first job, but for a lifetime of work. This kind of education equips students with the critical and creative thinking skills needed to navigate change, continue learning as workforce needs evolve and grow into the leaders of Mississippi’s tomorrow.
Early-career outcomes tell us whether a university is doing its job right now. Long-term outcomes tell us whether that education continues to hold its value in a changing economy. The W performs strongly in the years immediately after graduation, and that value lasts over time.
National research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce shows that liberal arts education retains its economic value over time, with graduates from these universities ranking among the top tiers nationally in long-term earnings (third among fourteen Carnegie classifications). The Center’s most recent data shows that the 40 year return on investment for W graduates is approximately $1.373 million. This demonstrates an education that delivers results early and continues to deliver over decades.
Public universities succeed when they provide affordable, high-quality education for the people of their state and enable them to build productive careers and lives in the towns and communities where they choose to stay. This is public higher education doing what it is meant to do. This is public higher education doing its job.
Scott Tollison is Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and professor of management information systems and workforce development at Mississippi University for Women.
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