Higher Education Innovation And Reform

The inspiration for this timely book is the pressing need for fresh ideas and innovations in U.S. higher education. At the heart of the volume is the realization that higher education must evolve in fundamental ways if it is to respond to changing professional, economic, and technological circumstances, and if it is to successfully reach and prepare a vast population of students—traditional and nontraditional alike—for success in the coming decades. This collection of provocative articles by leading scholars, writers, innovators, and university administrators examines the current higher education environment and its chronic resistance to change; the rise of for-profit universities; the potential future role of community colleges in a significantly revised higher education realm; and the emergence of online learning as a means to reshape teaching and learning and to reach new consumers of higher education. Combining trenchant critiques of current conditions with thought-provoking analyses of possible reforms and new directions, Reinventing Higher Education is an ambitious exploration of possible future directions for revitalized American colleges and universities.

In this provocative volume, higher education experts explore innovative ways that colleges and universities can unbundle the various elements of the college experience while assessing costs and benefits and realizing savings. Stretching the Higher Education Dollar traces the reform continuum from incremental to more ambitious efforts. Topics include effective strategies for reallocating resources to capture efficiencies, opportunities with massive open online courses (MOOCs), and ideas for building low-cost degree pathways from the ground up. Though the pace of change in higher education is fast and furious, Stretching the Higher Education Dollar offers promising ideas for navigating the new fiscal, political, and technological environment. "This accessible and timely book makes a valuable contribution to higher education policy thinking about how to increase system performance and output in an era of tightly constrained resources. The editors bring to readers a well designed and well-written collection of chapters about ways to make limited dollars go further, authored by smart observers of the higher education scene." -- William Zumeta, professor, University of Washington "As college has become the gateway to the middle class, its costs and prices have relentlessly outstripped the incomes of all but the most affluent American families. These essays offer insights into the dimensions of the problem and into some of the most innovative and promising solutions. This volume contributes significantly to the debate about the future of American higher education." -- Patrick M. Callan, president, Higher Education Policy Institute Andrew P. Kelly is resident scholar and director of the Center on Higher Education Reform at the American Enterprise Institute. Kevin Carey is director of the education policy program at the New America Foundation.

Rising costs, increasing global competition, intensifying calls for accountability--all these pressures are bearing down upon the status quo of higher education today. Governments, funders, students, and parents are demanding strategic improvements in all aspects of postsecondary education. Reform cannot happen slowly--colleges and universities must take a rapid and dynamic approach to change. The answer lies in innovation, as this book shows, to promote fresh ideas and bring higher education professionals together to effect real and dramatic change.

This book analyzes the reforms that led to a differentiated landscape of higher education systems after university practices and governance were considered poorly adapted to contemporary settings and to their new missions. This has led to a growing institutional differentiation in many higher education systems. This differentiation has certainly contributed to making the institutional landscape more diverse across and within higher education systems. This book covers this diversity. Each part corresponds to a different but complementary way of looking at reforms and highlights what can be learnt on specific cases by adopting a specific perspective. The first part analyzes the ongoing reforms and their evolution, identifies their internal contradictions, as well as the redefinitions and reorientations they experience, and reveals the ideas, representations, ideologies and theories on which they are built. The second part includes comparison between countries but also other comparative perspectives such as how one reform is developed in different regions of the same country, as well as how comparable reforms are declined to different sectors. The last part addresses the impact of the reforms. What is known about the effectiveness of such instruments on higher education systems? This part shows that reforms provoke new power games and reconfigure power relations.

Recent pressures on undergraduate education have led to major—but often untutored—attempts to revitalize curricula. This comprehensive handbook is designed to aid faculty, administrators, and students engaged in curriculum reform at the undergraduate level. The emphasis throughout is on planning. Professor Conrad proposes a systems model for curriculum planning and examines four major areas: general and liberal education, area concentration, experiential learning, and calendar and degree programs. In each of these areas he identifies key issues, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, provides a historical context, outlines major trends, and describes a variety of innovations that institutions might adopt. The result is a practical, usable book.

Examines some of the dilemmas facing higher education today, and explores a number of innovations that are worthy of special attention.