As a consequence of the suspension of a system of yearly evaluations of individual courses with student questionnaires, the University of Leuven organised a broad consultation of the academic community focussing on what they expect from a system based on student feedback. The study revealed that this community attaches great importance to a clear…

This investigation traces the history of change in public higher education as it relates to its third mission, from the traditional service to the contemporary engagement. The article begins with the emergence of U.S. higher education institutions in the 1600s and documents the changes era by era to the present. In each era, higher education's…

Washington state's public four-year universities and college have submitted their 2003-05 accountability plans to the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB). The state operating budget directs the Board to review these plans and set biennial performance targets for each institution. For 2003-05, the four-year institutions are reporting on a…

The purpose of the paper is to provide evidence that the Transfer System in British Columbia (BC) has been effective and therefore accountable for the public funding that supports that system. The paper attempts to show: (1) the multi-faceted nature, breadth and depth of research that has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of the BC…

By 2001, 15.9 million students were enrolled in 4,074 American colleges and universities; 2.2 million were enrolled in graduate and first-professional programs, more than half of them--1.4 million--at the master's level. Graduate enrollments rose about 38% between 1985 and 2001; first-professional enrollments increased 13% between 1990 and 2001…

Employers consistently rank communication skills, in particular writing ability, among the most important skills for undergraduate business students to possess. However, improving writing skills, especially with respect to punctuation, grammar, and word choice, often requires substantial teacher time and effort. To assess and improve student…

This report was issued from a 2006 meeting of individuals representing a variety of higher education institutions. The purpose of the meeting was to consider the future of higher education with particular attention to its built environment. The report provides a contextual overview of the changing landscape of higher education by identifying the…

Accountability in many and varied forms is being required of teacher preparation programs. Weiner (2000) explores the dichotomy of the belief that meaningful learning needs to be situated versus policy that demands educational outcomes be standardized. This contradiction demands urgent analysis as we look for appropriate measures of accountability…

At a time when college degrees are increasingly a prerequisite for middle-class wages, less than 40 percent of college students are able to demonstrate proficiency on literacy tests, barely half of college students graduate on time, and many do not graduate at all. At the same time. the price of college continues to increase quickly and…

Research by the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEETF) and Roper Public Affairs at NOP World tells that the average 12th grader (and by extension, the average adult) still falls far short of what would be considered "environmentally literate" by anyone's definition. Seemingly elementary questions elude most of…

ARL is the bimonthly report on research library issues and actions from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). ARL reports on current issues of interest to academic and research library administrators, staff, and users; higher education…

The mission of the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB), as the state coordinating board for community colleges, is to administer the Public Community College Act in a manner that maximizes the ability of the community colleges to serve their communities, promotes cooperation within the system, and accommodates those State of Illinois…

Recent federal mandates require accountability for providing students with disabilities access to the general education curriculum. In this paper, the authors recommend that teacher educator for the new majority consider how the principles of Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction can help school personnel tailor their…

Growing regulation of teacher preparation programs has raised concerns about standardization in the field of teacher education. With greater uniformity, is there a loss of innovation and program identity? To gather information on this question, we examined teacher preparation programs in Elementary Education, Secondary English, Secondary…

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed into law the landmark legislation known as the Inspector General Act (IG Act). The IG Act created independent inspectors general, who would: protect the integrity of government; improve program efficiency and effectiveness; prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse in federal agencies; and keep agency heads,…