The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education has as its main objective to improve postsecondary educational opportunities by providing assistance to educational institutions and agencies for a broad range of reforms and innovations. Grants and contracts may be awarded by the Fund for one of 8 purposes: (1) encouraging the reform, innovation, and improvement of postsecondary education, and providing equal educational opportunity for all; (2) the creation of institutions and programs involving new paths to career and professional training and new combinations of academic and experimental learning; (3) the establishment of institutions and programs based on the technology of communications; (4) the carrying out in postsecondary educational institutions of changes in internal structure and operations designed to clarify institutional priorities and purposes; (5) the design and introduction of cost-effective methods of instruction and operation; (6) the introduction of institutional reforms designed to expand individual opportunities for entering and reentering institutions and pursuing programs of study tailored to individual trends; (7) the introduction of reforms in graduate education, in the structure of academic professions, and in the recruitment and retention of faculties; and (8) the creation of new institutions and programs for examining and awarding credentials to individuals. (HS)