Universities have become major actors on the global stage. Yet, as they strive to be "world-class," institutions of higher education are shifting away from their core missions of cultivating democratic citizenship, fostering critical thinking, and safeguarding academic freedom. In the contest to raise their national and global profiles,…

In this 12th edition of its flagship annual survey of college general education curricula, "What Will They Learn?," American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) shines a light on the wide disparity in academic standards at institutions of higher learning across the country. "What Will They Learn?" reviews the core curricula…

Students and the public routinely consult various published college rankings to assess the quality of colleges and universities and easily compare different schools. However, many institutions have responded to the rankings in ways that benefit neither the schools nor their students. In "Engines of Anxiety," sociologists Wendy Espeland…

"What Will They Learn?"™ evaluates every four-year public university with a stated liberal arts mission as well as hundreds of private colleges and universities selected on the basis of size, mission, and regional representation. All schools in the "What Will Will They Learn"™ study are regionally-accredited, nonprofit…

In the fiercely competitive, global job market, solid preparation in core skills matters a lot. Will college graduates write with the clarity, grace, and accuracy that employers (and everyone else) expect? Will they have the basic mathematical and scientific skills--regardless of their majors--that equip them to navigate an increasingly…

Past and current methods used in academic quality rankings of U.S. colleges and universities are discussed. In addition to a literature and historical review, modern quality rankings are compared with early (pre-1959) rankings, including past rankings of medical, dental, legal and black education. Also considered are the exemplary 1982 evaluation…

Ten papers on theory and research in higher education have the following titles and authors: "Collegiality: Toward a Clarification of Meaning and Function" (James L. Bess); "Quality by Design: Toward a Framework for Academic Quality Management" (David D. Dill); "Beyond 'the State': Interorganizational Relations and State…