Results of an external review of West Virginia University (WVU) and recommendations for strengthening WVU are presented. The review was designed by the Academy for Educational Development and involved 14 review panels and 42 senior university educators and administrators. A summary section on the observations, findings, and recommendations of the…

Progress toward the full participation of minorities in higher education during the past three decades is reviewed. Attention is directed to: the potential pool of qualified high school graduates who could enter postsecondary education; the participation and enrollment rates of minorities; factors related to retention and success in undergraduate…

This final report and separate evaluation report describe activities and accomplishments of a 45-month project at Heidelberg College (Ohio), to develop and evaluate an undergraduate course for nonmusic majors which integrates music with a variety of other disciplines. The course's emphasis was on the relationship of music to the larger society.…

Changes in the United Kingdom higher education system have resulted in a lack of formative (i.e., student feedback) assessment: increased student numbers and reduced funding resulting in bigger classes with less tutor contact, as well as a more diverse set of student entrants with a wider set of skills resulting in a greater need for formative…

A follow-up study of 146 recipients of bachelor's degrees in psychology yielded information about: course work; grade point average; fields of interest; graduate study plans; occupational use of psychology; type of job; value of faculty help; and characteristics of faculty who were influential in their lives. (Author/MH)

Computerized simulation of physical phenomena is a growing area of high-performance computing, providing a new approach to scientific discovery and offering creative, efficient, and effective alternatives to laboratory experiments for teaching graduate and undergraduate science. The technique is a very important scientific and instructional tool.…

Professors John M. Barron and Michael E. Staten's article in Vol. 34, No. 3 of this journal, "Usage of Credit Cards Received through College Student-Marketing Programs," purports to "provide benchmark measures of college student credit card usage." Based on empirical analyses of proprietary industry data, they conclude that "There is no…

This analysis examines alternative ways to use the approximately $6 billion now spent annually on Pell Grants to produce higher maximum awards for low-income students. The need for such alternatives is based on the rapidly declining value of the maximum Pell Grant as a percentage of college costs. A table offers 5-year baseline projections under…

This report summarizes a project in which a number of new approaches were taken to improve learning in undergraduate basic music instruction for music majors. The basic viewpoint proposed was that music activities can be seen as skilled problem solving in the areas of aural analysis, visual analysis, and understanding of compositional processes.…

This report presents findings of a study on the higher education progress of African Americans in the nation and by region, including both private and public sectors, two-year and four-year colleges and universities, historically black colleges and universities, and traditionally white institutions. Overall findings indicate steady progress by…

This report analyzes and summarizes the National Security Education Act of 1991 (NSEA) which authorizes a new program of aid for foreign language and area studies. The report discusses the legislation's aim to increase future national security through enhanced foreign language abilities and knowledge of other countries, the NSEA's authorized…

The language laboratory could make a larger impact than it does on undergraduate language study. The growth of attractive new technology makes even more important the careful evaluation and exploitation of existing technology. A major obstacle in doing this is the lack of careful and rigorous research about the effectiveness of the language…

This final report describes activities and achievements of a 3-year federally supported personnel preparation project that prepared preservice teachers for service in low-income/high minority schools by pairing theory with practice in school settings. Faculty of the University of Colorado recruited 41 university students to participate in the…

Undergraduate nursing education in the United Kingdom is now at the university level, either through incorporation into universities or in semiautonomous colleges. This has required considerable cultural adjustment and created challenges, particularly with greater interaction of nursing with psychology, sociology, and biology. Changes are examined…

This case study of current practice describes a virtual cross-cultural collaboration in the development of an undergraduate teacher preparation course in educational technology. In an effort to increase the cross-cultural and technological awareness necessary for 21st-century teachers, the authors collaborated on the design and development of an…