Just a few years ago, almost no one saw accreditation as a major force for change in higher education. It was generally regarded as something of an anachronism, a ritual institutions had to go through periodically just to stay legit. But accreditation is back. Anyone who doesn't think so should try Googling "accreditation": even with…

It is time for national scrutiny of the quality of higher education. Some indictments of higher education include: unqualified students; diluted standards, coddled faculty, little scholarly research, no quality control, inadequate measures of performance, declining academic freedom, and self-righteousness. (MLW)

By modulating course requirements, effective classroom management is able to sustain respectable academic standards while making flexible concessions to student petitions. The author's name is a pseudonynm. (MLW)

American society and culture is seen as being in an educational reform movement. Fresh ideas, renewed commitment to educational standards, rising expectations for teacher competence and student performance, impatience with trendy innovations and flabby practices, and a faith in the importance of high quality education are discussed. (MLW)

The issue of readability vs academic standards in college textbooks is addressed. Problems in balancing both needs and other problems involving textbooks and the publishing industry, including textbook resales and routine revisions of texts, are discussed. (JMD)

Quality rankings of undergraduate institutions and programs do exist although they are hard to find and often ignored. The accuracy of these ratings and how they can be improved are discussed. (MLW)

Two educators discuss the advantages and disadvantages of no-need scholarships. A national program of scholarships for high school students about to enter college is advocated by one while the other sees the no-need scholarships as weakening the principle that academic achievement should be its own reward. (MLW)

Economic factors in education are among the important causes of poor student performance. The time that students must work to support themselves has increased greatly to the extent that students are stretched thin between their desire to graduate as rapidly as possible and their need to have an income. (MLW)

Questions of power, leadership, and the struggle of academic versus administrative influence at Oxford University are explored, and Weber's theory of leadership and authority is applied to the institution, whose objective is to produce members of the elite or ruling social strata. (MSE)

In a reaction to an article by Chester E. Finn, Jr., it is contended that federal dollars have provided the essential margin that makes for quality and gives institutions more independence. Loss of federal dollars would not be taken up by the states or the private sector. (MLW)

College assessment systems, suggest New Jersey's governor, must be built from two sides to have integrity: a common core of statewide information about college performance defined by public bodies and boards, and institutional mission-related information defined by college presidents, faculty, and trustees. (MLW)

The debate about the purposes of education is worthless because the power of education is vastly exaggerated, because it is assumed that improvement can come from within the system, and because the debators are unaware of the real purpose of education: socialization. What happens in the classroom is largely irrelevant. (MSE)

Recent books presenting the neoconservative criticism of higher education are reviewed including books by Allan Bloom, Charles Sykes, Jacques Barzun, Peter Shaw, Roger Kimball, and Thomas Short. Common assumptions include the worsening of American education resulting from warped curriculum reform and distorted performance standards. Agreement with…

The purposes and methods behind Gourman's rankings of American colleges and universities, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs, are outlined and discussed, and the controversy surrounding his publications, which have had a significant impact in education, is examined. (MSE)

In critical times, it is suggested, anything that profoundly affects the basic mission and the ultimate survival of a college or university is a legitimate concern of trustees. The triple crisis facing higher education is identified: funding, quality control, and definition of purpose. (MLW)