Why Time to Value Matters

In an era of rapid economic changes and evolving workforce demands, UNT is committed to providing credentials of value that unlock students’ potential to build rewarding careers and lives of meaning and purpose — not in the distant future but within their line of sight. Time to value measures how quickly our graduates can translate their UNT education into economic benefits, providing a critical lens for evaluating whether our programs deliver on this commitment. For students and families making significant investments in higher education, understanding the return on that investment matters more than ever.

Our Goal
Reduce the time it takes UNT graduates to recoup their degree costs, especially in undergraduate programs with time to value longer than the university median of seven years.

 

Unpacking the Data: How does UNT measure time to value?

Time to value is the amount of time it takes graduates to earn back their financial investment in earning their degree. For each program, UNT calculates the full cost of earning a degree (tuition and fees net of gift aid, average loan debt, books, and opportunity costs) and compares it against the wage premium graduates earn relative to a typical high school graduate. That premium grows over time as graduates advance in their careers. The year cumulative earnings exceed cumulative costs is a program's time to value. This provides a more comprehensive view of student success, revealing not only whether students complete their degrees but also how quickly they can translate their education into economic and professional benefits.

Even factoring in opportunity costs, the average time for students to recoup their degree costs and break even on their total investments in UNT undergraduate programs is within seven years after graduation. The median time to value across UNT undergraduate programs is seven years, though this varies significantly by field, ranging from as few as three years for some programs to more than a decade for others.

One of the core components of UNT’s time to value measure is understanding our graduates’ earnings after completing a degree at UNT. Using state and national wage data, UNT tracks the median income of graduates from one to 10 years after graduation. Median income varies by award type (bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral recipients) as well as program. Understanding what UNT graduates earn throughout their careers is an important step to help identify ways to boost the value of UNT credentials and prepare students for career success.

While economic value is an important factor, other definitions of value can be harder to quantify. Some degrees may lead to careers in professions that are critically important to society but not highly compensated, such as early childhood education or social work. Careers in the arts may not always result in lucrative earnings, but they enrich lives in innumerable ways. Thus, UNT is exploring ways to reduce costs for these programs so students aren't disadvantaged by their dedication to public service.

UNT is committed to using this data both to advise students about typical earnings for programs and to improve time to value for our graduates. The data help identify opportunities to accelerate students’ career preparation, strengthen industry partnerships, and create more direct pathways from education to meaningful employment that benefits both graduates and employers.

Strategic Priorities to Accelerate Time to Value

UNT will track time to value to identify programs, support systems, and pedagogical approaches that most effectively prepare students for rapid career entry and advancement, enabling data-driven decisions regarding the following key strategies:
  • Align curriculum and academic advising with students' career aspirations to provide all UNT students with a grounded, future-ready education, from developing durable skills within the Core Curriculum to creating stackable credentials and certificates that enhance the value of their degree.
  • Enhance career-aligned learning by embedding internships, industry-sponsored projects, and other experiences that build skills students can use to jumpstart their careers, allowing students to develop and apply knowledge and skills in professional settings before graduation.
  • Strengthen industry partnerships and initiatives, such as the Texas Talent Accelerator, to anticipate economic change and align our institutional efforts with emerging workforce needs across the DFW region to prepare students for a rapidly evolving economy.
  • Leverage data analytics for continuous improvement and support by tracking time to value and graduate outcomes to help identify program-level enhancement opportunities, while deploying student-level predictive analytics and support to help every student stay on track toward meaningful employment.
  • Build robust alumni mentorship and career networks to facilitate post-graduation employment opportunities and career advancement, supporting graduates throughout their careers even beyond graduation. 

Methodology Notes

  • Time to value is the number of years before the cumulative income earned with a particular degree above that earned by a typical high school graduate exceeds the net cost of earning that degree.
  • UNT partners with Equifax, one of the three major United States credit bureaus, to obtain national income information on UNT graduates. Additional earnings data is provided by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, from state unemployment wage reported by employers to the Texas Workforce Commission.
  • UNT graduate information, including graduation year and the department of their major, is submitted to Equifax beginning with the 2012 graduating cohort. New cohorts are added as data are updated.
  • Graduates consisted of bachelor's degree recipients not found in a graduate program at UNT or elsewhere after receiving their bachelor's degree using National Student Clearinghouse data.
  • Equifax provides anonymized aggregate income information on groups of graduates based on real earnings data from employers. The data are limited by the ability for Equifax to find and match UNT graduates with their post-graduation employment.
  • Student debt information is provided by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and is estimated based on tuition, fees, and other costs, and is inclusive of grants, scholarships, and waivers.​