Intelligent.com Survey Reveals Trends on College Degree Requirements

Intelligent.com surveyed 800 people in the USA who were involved in hiring decisions and met the additional demographic criteria for age, income and organisational role to determine how organisations are handling hiring people with or without a bachelor’s degree.  

Intelligent.com, a resource for online degree rankings and higher education planning, has published a recent survey report that reveals the upcoming trends on how companies plan to manoeuvre with college degree requirements in 2024 and how they have done it till now. Intelligent.com, a trusted resource for online degree rankings and higher education planning, has published a recent survey report. 

The survey states that 45% companies would eliminate the requirement of a bachelor’s degree for some specific positions in the coming year and 39% said that they won’t. 16% of companies stated that they are unsure. In 2023, 55 percent of companies removed bachelor’s degree requirements for some roles. Seventy percent removed it for entry-level roles, 61 percent for mid-level roles, and 45 percent for senior-level roles. The companies who eliminated bachelors degree stated that they wanted to do so to ‘to create a more diverse workforce,’ wanted ‘to increase the number of applicants,’ or believed ‘there are other ways to gain skills.’

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“A bachelor’s degree is much more than preparation for an entry-level job. It prepares people for a full life, including exploring what areas of employment might be a good fit for the immediate and long-term future,” says professor and higher education advisor Diane Gayeski. “While a young person may be able to get an entry-level job without a bachelor’s degree, the lack of the degree along with the other ‘soft skills’ that one gains in college can make it difficult to climb the corporate ladder.”

Survey results also highlight that 80 percent of employers are ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ to favor work experience over education when assessing job candidates’ applications. Likewise, 81 percent say it is important for recent college graduates to have work experience. In fact, 75 percent of employers agree that certificate programs have value, while 68 percent say the same for associate degrees and 61 percent for online degrees and apprenticeships. Additionally, to determine a candidate’s fit for a job, 68 percent of employers give candidates test assignments and 64 percent give personality tests.

This survey was conducted on the Pollfish platform and commissioned by Intelligent.com. 800 participants from the United States of America in November 2023. To qualify for the survey, all participants had to say they were involved in hiring decisions and met the additional demographic criteria for age, income and organisational role.

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