Higher Education in America

Revised Edition

Derek Bok

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781400866120
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

A sweeping assessment of the state of higher education today from former Harvard president Derek Bok Higher Education in America is a landmark work--a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the current condition of our colleges and universities from former Harvard president Derek Bok, one of the nation's most respected education experts. Sweepingly ambitious in scope, this is a deeply informed and balanced assessment of the many strengths as well as the weaknesses of American higher education today. At a time when colleges and universities have never been more important to the lives and opportunities of students or to the progress and prosperity of the nation, Bok provides a thorough examination of the entire system, public and private, from community colleges and small liberal arts colleges to great universities with their research programs and their medical, law, and business schools. Drawing on the most reliable studies and data, he determines which criticisms of higher education are unfounded or exaggerated, which are issues of genuine concern, and what can be done to improve matters.Some of the subjects considered are long-standing, such as debates over the undergraduate curriculum and concerns over rising college costs. Others are more recent, such as the rise of for-profit institutions and massive open online courses (MOOCs). Additional topics include the quality of undergraduate education, the stagnating levels of college graduation, the problems of university governance, the strengths and weaknesses of graduate and professional education, the environment for research, and the benefits and drawbacks of the pervasive competition among American colleges and universities.Offering a rare survey and evaluation of American higher education as a whole, this book provides a solid basis for a fresh public discussion about what the system is doing right, what it needs to do better, and how the next quarter century could be made a period of progress rather than decline.

PART I

THE CONTEXT

FOREWORD (I)

There is more than one way to organize a study of higher education. One can proceed, as this book does, by discussing each of the most important functions of colleges and universities—undergraduate education, professional training, and research. One can also follow the example of David Riesman and Christopher Jencks in their influential 1960s volume—The Academic Revolution—and arrange the material by types of institution: liberal arts colleges, research universities, religiously affiliated institutions, and the like.¹ There are doubtless other plausible ways to divide the pie.

Whatever method one chooses, it is helpful to begin with an overview of the system in which our colleges and universities function—the different kinds of institutions that exist, their purposes and goals, the influence that governments exert on their behavior, and the way they are organized and governed. Such information has a bearing on what one can reasonably expect universities to accomplish, the strengths and weaknesses they possess, and the prospects for bringing about any needed reforms.

Providing such an overview is the aim of the initial section of this book. The first chapter analyzes the nature of our higher education system—the principal types of institutions it contains, the extent to which they are controlled or influenced by government, the way in which they interact with one another, and how they are financed. In order to bring out key points about our system, its main features are compared with those of other advanced industrial nations. Not surprisingly, the characteristics that make our colleges and universities distinctive do much to explain why they have managed to achieve such an enviable reputation around the world. At the same time, these same characteristics harbor tensions and vulnerabilities that could lead to problems and limit what higher education can accomplish.

The second chapter in this sequence considers the purposes that shape the behavior of colleges and universities. Not all of these institutions share the same ends, although each is engaged in one way or another with teaching students. Some colleges pursue a single goal; most universities have several. Where multiple goals exist, they may conflict with each other or complement one another. How wisely individual colleges and universities select their aims and what kinds of programs they create in order to achieve them have a lot to do with how effectively they perform, and how well the system as a whole meets the full range of needs that society expects it to serve.

Chapter 2 also considers the tendency for universities to grow continuously and eventually strain the capacity of academic leaders to oversee and guide the organization. Such a process may be inevitable for an institution with so many opportunities to serve and so many inventive individuals who perceive the possibilities and try to make the most of them. Yet some kinds of growth are needless and ill-advised. The discussion in this chapter tries to identify them and suggest the difference between prudent and unwise expansion.

The third and final chapter in this section describes how individual colleges and universities are typically governed—who within them exercises influence and authority and how this distribution of power affects the way in which they behave. Some critics have warned that defects in the current system of governance are weakening universities to a degree that seriously interferes with their ability to adapt to changing needs and opportunities. Such a charge warrants close attention. Whether or not it is correct, one must understand university governance in order to recognize who is responsible for any problems that occur and whose support will be needed to bring about desirable reform.

Rounding out this initial section is a brief afterword to introduce the values that affect how a college or university carries out its work. These values include various rights and privileges, such as academic freedom, that are widely considered essential to effective teaching and research. Also included are responsibilities long recognized by the academic profession, some of which belong to professors and others to those who occupy leadership positions in colleges and universities. These norms, sometimes codified but often not, define the shared ends and means that bring some order to what could otherwise become an inchoate collection of independent teachers and scholars.

Academic values also affect the efforts of campus leaders to maintain and improve their universities. Proposed reforms that offend these values often meet resistance from the faculty and ultimately fail. What is less understood is that academic values can also be a powerful force for constructive change, since faculties will usually experience discomfort and agree to reforms once they are persuaded that existing practices conflict with the principles and responsibilities that help define their professional identity and shape the aspirations that give meaning to their lives.

CHAPTER ONE

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION

AMERICA’S INITIAL VENTURE in the realm of higher learning gave no hint of future accomplishments. Nor could the handful of young men who arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1638 to enter the nation’s first college have had the faintest idea of what the future had in store for American universities. Before the year was out, the head of that tiny institution, Nathaniel Eaton, had been charged with assault for beating a tutor almost to death, while his wife stood accused of serving too little beer to the students and adulterating their food. Master Eaton was eventually dismissed and promptly fled, allegedly taking much of the endowment with him, whereupon the college shut down for an entire academic year.¹

From these modest beginnings, higher education in the United States has grown to become a vast enterprise comprising some 4,500 different colleges and universities, more than 20 million students, 1.4 million faculty members, and aggregate annual expenditures exceeding 400 billion dollars. Within this system are schools ranging from tiny colleges numbering a few hundred students to huge universities with enrollments exceeding 50,000. For descriptive purposes, however, the system can be broken down into several kinds of institutions, each with its own distinctive aims and characteristics.

RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES

Within this category one finds renowned centers of learning such as Columbia, Yale, and Princeton that were founded before the American Revolution; a substantial number of flagship public universities dating back to the nineteenth century; a handful of private institutions, such as Chicago, Stanford, and Cornell, created through the generosity of wealthy industrialists following the Civil War; and a few newcomers like Brandeis and the University of California, San Diego, that were begun after World War II.

Although there are only approximately two hundred research universities, they account for a large majority of the PhDs awarded, most of the degrees granted in law and medicine, and more than a quarter of all the students in the entire system.² The most prominent—say the top sixty or so—dominate the national and international rankings, award at least half of the PhDs, and receive the greater part of the billions of dollars spent each year by the federal government on academic research. They have the largest budgets, the biggest endowments, the best professional schools, and the most extensive libraries. Most of their colleges accept less than half of the students who apply for admission. A few are extremely selective, turning away several applicants for every one they admit.

COMPREHENSIVE UNIVERSITIES

There are more than seven hundred so-called comprehensive universities offering a wide variety of professional master’s and doctoral programs while also carrying on at least a modest amount of research.³ Many are public and have large undergraduate enrollments. Their student bodies are diverse, with higher percentages of commuters, ethnic minorities, part-time students, and adults over thirty years of age than one would normally find attending a major research university. They are rarely very selective in their admissions policies. Instead, they typically accept most of those who apply, and their students tend to have significantly lower high school grade-point averages and college admission test scores than those enrolled in the research universities.

Many comprehensives evolved from technical colleges or from normal schools that trained teachers for the public schools. Now that they have grown in size and have mounted a wide variety of vocationally oriented degree programs, they have sometimes struggled to define their distinctive mission. A few have managed to become research universities. Many more that are located in cities have identified themselves as “metropolitan universities,” with special responsibilities to serve the needs of their surrounding urban area. As such, they concentrate on offering programs to match the employment opportunities in their city and its environs. Much of their research is oriented toward the practical problems of local employers, government agencies, and community organizations. In addition, they frequently offer a variety of special services for local public schools, community colleges, small businesses, and other entities that can benefit from their expertise and technical assistance.

FOUR-YEAR COLLEGES

A very different group are the almost one thousand, mainly private, nonprofit colleges.⁴ Some are more than two hundred years old and were begun under the sponsorship of a religious denomination. They tend to be much smaller than research or comprehensive universities, enrolling, in all, only two percent of undergraduates. A century ago, most of these colleges would have concentrated primarily or even exclusively on the liberal arts. As more and more young people have come to college to prepare for a career, private colleges have found it necessary to offer vocational programs in order to attract enough students to survive. Only a minority still award more than half of their undergraduate degrees to liberal arts majors, and no more than twenty-five are exclusively devoted to this form of education.

A few private colleges, such as Amherst and Williams, attract outstanding students and offer an education of the highest quality. With more applicants than they can accept and substantial endowments contributed by grateful alumni, they are highly successful and financially secure. Once one moves beyond these fortunate few, however, the situation changes dramatically. Most of the remaining private colleges are hard-pressed to compete for undergraduates with state-subsidized public universities that charge much lower tuitions. Many constantly struggle to balance the books, and scores of them over the past fifty years have had to give up the fight and close their doors.⁵

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Beyond universities and private four-year colleges are more than one thousand two-year, nonprofit community colleges.⁶ All but approximately eighty-five are public, supported by state and local funds. Together, they account for more than 40 percent of all undergraduate enrollments.

The community college movement began early in the twentieth century chiefly as a means to accommodate students who wanted a BA degree but needed a lower-cost school close to home that they could attend for two years before transferring to a four-year college. Although many community colleges had long offered job training as well as liberal arts programs, it was only after World War II that vocational education began to attract a majority of the students enrolled. By now, in addition to liberal arts courses, most community colleges offer a wide variety of vocational degree programs along with shorter courses, often developed in cooperation with nearby employers, that train students for specific jobs.

In contrast to the faculties of four-year institutions, only a small minority of those teaching in community colleges are PhDs. In earlier decades, most of their instructors came to them from high school teaching. Increasing numbers now come from industry, bringing practical skills they can teach to students in vocational programs. Most of these instructors are only part-time and either hold other jobs of a different kind or piece together several part-time teaching assignments at different educational institutions.

Community colleges have enjoyed a boom over the past several decades. From 1963 to 2006, their enrollments grew by 740 percent compared with approximately 200 percent growth for four-year colleges. Together, community colleges currently enroll over seven million students attending for credit. In keeping with the American ideal of opportunity for all, they offer a chance at a college education to many people who might not otherwise enroll. In doing so, they attract students who, if anything, are even more diverse in age, ethnicity, and ambition than those of the typical metropolitan university. Sixty percent of students who enroll attend part-time, and 80 percent have full- or part-time jobs. Forty-five percent are minorities and 42 percent are first-generation college students. Many arrive lacking basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics and are required to take remedial courses and complete them successfully before they can begin taking regular classes for credit.

There is a continuing debate over whether community colleges increase or diminish the number of students who eventually earn a BA degree. For some, the chance to enroll in a nearby, inexpensive community college undoubtedly makes it possible to begin undergraduate studies and then move on to a four-year college and earn a BA degree. Yet graduation rates are low, even when one takes account of the academic background of those who enter. Many students who could have qualified for a four-year college but elected to start their postsecondary education in a community college never transfer, often because they receive inadequate counseling, or are turned off by indifferently taught courses, or are diverted into vocational classes that do not qualify for credit at a four-year college. In all, only some 20–25 percent of those who enroll in a community college eventually transfer to a four-year institution, many fewer than the two-thirds or more who claim an intention to do so when they enter.⁷ Whether more students would have enrolled in a four-year college and earned a degree had community colleges not existed is a question hotly debated but still unresolved.⁸

FOR-PROFIT INSTITUTIONS

Beyond the several categories mentioned above lies a large and growing for-profit sector composed of more than thirteen hundred schools. Roughly half of these give college degrees; the rest are two-year colleges or institutions that grant certificates signifying completion of a training program for a specific occupation such as cosmetology or the culinary arts.⁹ For-profits chiefly offer vocational instruction, especially for older students seeking to prepare themselves for higher-paying jobs. Collectively, they award approximately 10 percent of all college degrees.

While most for-profits are small proprietary schools, a few are huge, with tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of students. The largest fifteen alone enroll almost 60 percent of all students in the entire for-profit sector. With branches in a number of states and even overseas, these mega-universities have constituted the fastest-growing segment in the entire higher education system, both in traditional face-to-face classes and in online instruction.* Over the past two years, however, enrollments at these institutions have leveled off or declined following “a steady drumroll of negative publicity about the sector’s recruiting abuses, low graduation rates and high default rates [on student loans].”¹⁰

Unlike public universities and most private, nonprofit institutions, for-profits rely almost entirely on tuition payments as a source of revenue. Since the vast majority of their students have modest incomes, they are heavily subsidized by Pell Grants and educational loans from the federal government. In 2008–9, although for-profits accounted for less than 10 percent of total undergraduate enrollments, their students were awarded 24 percent of all Pell Grants and 26 percent of federally guaranteed loans while incurring larger debts than nonprofit students.¹¹

For-profit universities rarely compete directly with liberal arts colleges or research universities. Their typical student is older, part-time, often employed and intent on acquiring the skills to qualify for a higher-paying job. By cutting costs, providing year-round education, renting space, and doing without research, athletics, extracurricular activities, and other nonessential amenities and services, for-profits can charge a tuition well below that of most private nonprofit colleges and still earn a tidy surplus. The best of them offer convenient locations,...