New models for higher education
Report points to poorly trained grads, sagging completion rates, and low expectations in its call for an overhaul
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Still others say higher education needs a fundamental makeover. That's why IUPUI which is lauded in the Greater Expectations report is focusing on what Ms. McClish, now a sophomore, actually learns, instead of just totaling up how many course hours she accumulates.
"Our retention rate was terrible before, students just weren't being successful," says Scott Evenbeck, dean of University College at IUPUI. "We needed to come together as a campus and help students make the transition to university life."
Since the six-principles program began five years ago, retention has risen sharply. Also, the principles are starting to catch on with some students. McClish even requested extra dividers for each one of her notebooks. "When I do a paper or a homework assignment or a speech, I use it as another gauge for how I've performed," she says. "Did I hit all of them? If I do that, I figure I've got the assignment well done."
Richard Hersh, the new president of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., has thought a lot about changing higher education. He sits on the panel of educators that developed the new "Greater Expectations" report, which calls for an "invigorated and practical liberal education."
The current US higher-education system is falling woefully short of its abilities and failing students in the process, Mr. Hersh says.
"Our universities are world-renowned for their research," he says. "We've always assumed those reputations were equally true of the undergraduate programs and now we're finding out that they're not."
Less than 48 percent of students who start college graduate from a four-year program. "If we're so good, why do we have such weak retention?" Hersh asks.
To begin to fix the problem, he says, colleges must set explicit goals for student learning so academic departments and general-education courses can align with them.
The report is intended as a road map for policymakers to create a "learner-centered" approach in college focusing on what and how students learn, not just on what teachers wish to teach. To create engaged "intentional learners," it advises:
Having faculty members across disciplines and departments assume collective responsibility for the curriculum, to ensure that every student has an enriching liberal education.
Regularly assessing student progress in achieving goals.
Creating faculty reward systems that value learning-centered education.
Placing the institution's vision of a liberal education at the center of strategic planning and resource allocation.
We do not need more vocational-type teaching in college, Dr. Hersh says.
"The much more important and more powerful form of education for the 21st century is about getting people to deal with masses of information, make sense of it, and to be able to think, write, articulate, and have a moral compass so we're not left just waiting for the next Enron moment."
