Higher Education in America by Derek Bok, ISBN-13: 978-0691159140
[PDF eBook eTextbook]
- Publisher: Princeton University Press (Aug. 25 2013)
- Language: English
- 496 pages
- ISBN-10: 0691159149
- ISBN-13: 978-0691159140
A sweeping assessment of the state of higher education today from former Harvard president Derek Bok.
Higher Education in America is a landmark work–a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the current condition of our colleges and universities from former Harvard president Derek Bok, one of the nation’s most respected education experts. Sweepingly ambitious in scope, this is a deeply informed and balanced assessment of the many strengths as well as the weaknesses of American higher education today. At a time when colleges and universities have never been more important to the lives and opportunities of students or to the progress and prosperity of the nation, Bok provides a thorough examination of the entire system, public and private, from community colleges and small liberal arts colleges to great universities with their research programs and their medical, law, and business schools. Drawing on the most reliable studies and data, he determines which criticisms of higher education are unfounded or exaggerated, which are issues of genuine concern, and what can be done to improve matters.
Some of the subjects considered are long-standing, such as debates over the undergraduate curriculum and concerns over rising college costs. Others are more recent, such as the rise of for-profit institutions and massive open online courses (MOOCs). Additional topics include the quality of undergraduate education, the stagnating levels of college graduation, the problems of university governance, the strengths and weaknesses of graduate and professional education, the environment for research, and the benefits and drawbacks of the pervasive competition among American colleges and universities.
Offering a rare survey and evaluation of American higher education as a whole, this book provides a solid basis for a fresh public discussion about what the system is doing right, what it needs to do better, and how the next quarter century could be made a period of progress rather than decline.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part I The Context
Foreword (I) 7
Chapter One The American System of Higher Education 9
Chapter Two Purposes, Goals, and Limits to Growth 28
Chapter Three The Governance of Nonprofit Universities 44
Afterword (I) 72
Part II Undergraduate Education
Foreword (II) 77
Chapter Four Going to College and Earning a Degree 81
Chapter Five Paying for College: The Challenge for Policy-Makers and Academic Leaders 98
Chapter Six Entering the Right College 122
Chapter Seven The Expanding Audience for Higher Education 145
Chapter Eight What to Learn 166
Chapter Nine How to Teach 183
Chapter Ten Prospects for Reform 201
Afterword (II) 220
Chapter Eleven Graduate Education
Part III Professional Education
Foreword (III) 249
Chapter Twelve Medical Schools 256
Chapter Thirteen Law Schools 271
Chapter Fourteen Business Schools 287
Afterword (III) 306
Part IV Research
Foreword (IV) 321
Chapter Fifteen “Publish or Perish” 328
Chapter Sixteen The Changing Nature of Scientific Research 342
Chapter Seventeen The Environment for Research 358
Afterword (IV) 377
Part V A Final Reckoning
Foreword (V) 383
Chapter Eighteen Matters of Genuine Concern 387
The Last Word 408
Notes 413
Index 453
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