Coming to Grips with Higher Education
Coming to Grips with Higher Education

Author: Michael T. Nietzel

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-10-01

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1475838441

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The American university faces many challenges. It has become too costly and inefficient. It fails too many students. It spends too much time and money on matters that should not be its priorities. It clings to policies and practices that need to go away. And it is too disconnected from the students and communities it must serve. This book proposes several changes to standard policies in our colleges and universities that will sharpen their missions, redirect funding to the highest priorities, improve student learning and attainment, redefine faculty engagement, slow down spending on amenities, and reduce the excesses of intercollegiate athletics. The recommended reforms remain true to the essential academic values embraced by the academy, but at the same time they recognize and respond to the new realities facing higher education.

Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education
Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education

Author: Nathan D. Grawe

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 1421424134

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"The economics of American higher education are driven by one key factor--the availability of students willing to pay tuition--and many related factors that determine what schools they attend. By digging into the data, economist Nathan Grawe has created probability models for predicting college attendance. What he sees are alarming events on the horizon that every college and university needs to understand. Overall, he spots demographic patterns that are tilting the US population toward the Hispanic southwest. Moreover, since 2007, fertility rates have fallen by 12 percent. Higher education analysts recognize the destabilizing potential of these trends. However, existing work fails to adjust headcounts for college attendance probabilities and makes no systematic attempt to distinguish demand by institution type. This book analyzes demand forecasts by institution type and rank, disaggregating by demographic groups. Its findings often contradict the dominant narrative: while many schools face painful contractions, demand for elite schools is expected to grow by 15+ percent. Geographic and racial profiles will shift only slightly--and attendance by Asians, not Hispanics, will grow most. Grawe also use the model to consider possible changes in institutional recruitment strategies and government policies. These "what if" analyses show that even aggressive innovation is unlikely to overcome trends toward larger gaps across racial, family income, and parent education groups. Aimed at administrators and trustees with responsibility for decisions ranging from admissions to student support to tenure practices to facilities construction, this book offers data to inform decision-making--decisions that will determine institutional success in meeting demographic challenges"--

Coming to Grips With Genesis
Coming to Grips With Genesis

Author: Dr. Terry Mortenson

Publisher: New Leaf Publishing Group

Published: 2008-10-01

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 1614580367

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Fourteen theological scholars address key topics related to the age of the earth, which is the crucial issue of debate in the church today regarding origins. Bringing to bear rigorous biblical, theological, and historical arguments in favor of a six-day creation, the global Flood, and a young earth, they also provide much-needed critiques of a number of contemporary old-earth interpretations of the book of Genesis. This fresh defense of the literal history of Genesis 1-11 nicely complements other studies which focus more on the scientific evidence of young-earth creationism. As such, this book can serve as a versatile supplement to other works, but is also designed to be used as a standalone text for seminary and Bible college professors and students, pastors, missionaries, and others who want in-depth apologetic resources. Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earthincludes: Forewords by Dr. John MacArthur, President of the Master's Seminary and Senior Pastor of Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, CA; and the late Dr. Henry Morris, Founder and President Emeritus, Institute for Creation Research Detailed analysis of the verbs of Genesis 1 A defense of the Genesis 5 & 11 genealogies as strict chronologies Reasons for rejecting millions of years of death and natural evil before Adam's sin Careful reflection on Jesus' teachings regarding a young earth

Faulty Towers
Faulty Towers

Author: Roger E. Meiners

Publisher: Independent Institute

Published: 2015-09-21

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 1598132539

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Setting the record straight about the institution of academic tenure, this book elucidates its history, legal status, and common misunderstandings. Meiners argues that the original aim of tenure—to ensure academic freedom and integrity—can still be achieved and that the belief by many professors that tenure is a guarantee of lifelong entitlement, whereby only the commission of a crime can lead to dismissal, is wrong. He contends that as long as college administrators follow the rules of their own institution, there is little to prevent universities from dismissing tenured faculty who have become incompetent.

Closing of the American Mind
Closing of the American Mind

Author: Allan Bloom

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2008-06-30

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 1439126267

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The brilliant, controversial, bestselling critique of American culture that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times)—now featuring a new afterword by Andrew Ferguson in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition. In 1987, eminent political philosopher Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, an appraisal of contemporary America that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times) and has not only been vindicated, but has also become more urgent today. In clear, spirited prose, Bloom argues that the social and political crises of contemporary America are part of a larger intellectual crisis: the result of a dangerous narrowing of curiosity and exploration by the university elites. Now, in this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, acclaimed author and journalist Andrew Ferguson contributes a new essay that describes why Bloom’s argument caused such a furor at publication and why our culture so deeply resists its truths today.

The Uncertain Future of American Public Higher Education
The Uncertain Future of American Public Higher Education

Author: Daniel M. Johnson

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-12-19

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 303001794X

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This book addresses the costly non-sustainable policies, programs, practices, and priorities currently driving the tuition crisis in American public higher education. In this era of growing competition among public colleges and universities for more students and higher rankings, their leaders and governing boards have lost sight of student-centered missions in favor of more and greater non-education related amenities, facilities, programs, and practices that have added substantially to the cost of a college degree without increasing its quality. This book is an appeal to all interested taxpaying citizens, public officials, governors, governing boards, and university presidents to take a second look at these costly decisions and begin a new era of placing the higher education needs and interests of students above all. We have created this tuition crisis; now we must solve it.

Lesson Plan
Lesson Plan

Author: William G. Bowen

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2017-10-31

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 0691178453

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Why and how American colleges and universities need to change in order to meet the nation's pressing needs American higher education faces some serious problems—but they are not the ones most people think. In this brief and accessible book, two leading experts show that many so-called crises—from the idea that typical students are drowning in debt to the belief that tuition increases are being driven by administrative bloat—are exaggerated or simply false. At the same time, many real problems—from the high dropout rate to inefficient faculty staffing—have received far too little attention. In response, William G. Bowen and Michael S. McPherson provide a frank assessment of the biggest challenges confronting higher education and propose a bold agenda for reengineering essential elements of the system to meet them. The result promises to help shape the debate about higher education for years to come. Lesson Plan shows that, for all of its accomplishments, higher education today is falling short when it comes to vital national needs. Too many undergraduates are dropping out or taking too long to graduate; minorities and the poor fare worse than their peers, reinforcing inequality; and college is unaffordable for too many. But these problems could be greatly reduced by making significant changes, including targeting federal and state funding more efficiently; allocating less money for "merit aid" and more to match financial need; creating a respected “teaching corps” that would include nontenure faculty; improving basic courses in fields such as math by combining adaptive learning and face-to-face teaching; strengthening leadership; and encouraging more risk taking. It won't be easy for faculty, administrators, trustees, and legislators to make such sweeping changes, but only by doing so will they make it possible for our colleges and universities to meet the nation’s demands tomorrow and into the future.