Higher Education in America, by Derek Bok
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Higher Education in America, by Derek Bok
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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.
Higher Education in America, by Derek Bok - Amazon Sales Rank: #86031 in Books
- Brand: Bok, Derek
- Published on: 2015-03-22
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.20" h x 1.10" w x 6.10" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 496 pages
Higher Education in America, by Derek Bok From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. It's hard to imagine anyone better equipped to write this book than two-time Harvard president Bok (The Shape of the River), whose experience, professional knowledge, and scrupulous research pervade every page of this eminently readable study of American higher education. Keenly establishing the diversity of higher learning institutions in the early chapters, then addressing professional schools, Bok's comprehensive approach covers an array of rising concerns, including: "our stagnating graduation rates"; attrition in graduate school; the increased importance of research in the sciences; and "the hazards of commercialization." His purview extends from the historic roots of the American college to the impact of technology and expansion to overseas locations. Practical suggestions abound, such as steps colleges can take to improve graduation rates. No aspect of academic professional life is neglected; Bok takes notice that writing letters of recommendation is "a burden on the faculty out of all proportion to any real value served" and of "the emergence of China as a rising powerhouse in science and engineering research." Broad as Bok's scope is, its coherent structure, lucid style, and balanced tone ensure that this important scholarship is also a pleasure to read. It is a book of tremendous long-lasting value. (Sept.)
Review "Magisterial."--Stanley Fish, New York Times"[Higher Education in America is] a magisterial yet often contrarian assessment of challenges facing university governance, teaching, and, indeed, survival."--Jim Sleeper, Huffington Post"A thought-provoking book that defies political stereotypes. Because of its nuances, the book is a refreshing change from the openly hostile diatribes attacking higher education in recent years."--Peter Sacks, Minding the Campus"Bok draws on the latest empirical research to set the record straight about systems of governance, undergraduate education, doctoral programs, medical schools, law schools, and business schools, teaching, research, and tenure, tuition, financial aid, affirmative action, the role of government, inter-collegiate athletics, online education, for-profit institutions, and what he calls 'matters of genuine concern.' Comprehensive, judicious, probing, and immensely informative, written for students, parents, and taxpayers as well as 'insiders,' it is one of the best books to appear on this subject in decades."--Glenn Altschuler, Huffington Post"Monumental. . . . [Bok's] assessment is measured and clear, and we may confidently refer young academics and administrators to Higher Education in America as a primer on current affairs."--Mark Bauerlein, Weekly Standard"A detailed progress report on the challenges and opportunities facing our nation's colleges and universities. . . . Competition among schools produces benefits and causes problems. Most of the important ones are addressed in Bok's helpful volume. I hope he is right that we already have the ingredients in place to make the necessary reforms. I know we need university leaders like him to help activate those ingredients so that American higher education can continue to contribute in vital ways to our culture, our economy and our polity."--Michael S. Roth, Washington Post"In the past few years, UK government ministers have paid a lot of attention to the American higher education system, and some new ideas introduced in England, at least, have come directly from the US. Higher Education in America, written by a former president of Harvard University, serves to highlight the similarities between issues we face in the UK with those in the US. . . . Easy to read and comprehensive. . . . A useful overview of the state of US higher education in the early 21st century."--Mary Stuart, Times Higher Education"Hold on to your mortarboard; [Higher Education in America has] got five fat sections on the state of instruction at the undergrad then graduate level, with umpteen analyses of market forces at each turn, plus five forewords and four afterwords! Despite this daunting breadth, Bok keeps it real."--Katharine Whittemore, Boston Globe"One theme that I found particularly useful in Higher Education in America is Bok's treatment of undergraduate education and curriculum. Bok underlines the value of a broad university education at every level--for the individual, for the business who hires him or her, and for the society. . . . The book is worth reading carefully by faculty leaders and university administrators as they make their best efforts to enhance the educational effectiveness of their programs."--Daniel Little, Understanding Society blog"Derek Bok asks all the right questions about higher education, and his experience, research, and staggering intelligence pervade every page. The real value here lies in Bok's thorough examination of some of the most urgent challenges facing higher education--and in his spot-on recommendations for what needs to be done to address these concerns. This is an important book for both academics and families looking at a future in higher education."--Grandparents.com"Highly recommended for education professionals, policy advocates, and the broad public as a thorough and thoughtful examination that assesses strengths and weaknesses and suggests paths to academic improvement."--Elizabeth Hayford, Library Journal starred review"Derek Bok . . . has a breathtaking grasp of higher education worldwide, and he states his positions in a lucid and learned manner. Moreover, he presents copious evidence to back his assertions so that the reader who wishes to challenge him knows precisely what data support his contentions."--Edward P. Sheridan, PsycCRITIQUES"With more than two decades of service as president of Harvard University behind him, Derek Bok has views on higher education that must be taken seriously. . . . Now in Higher Education in America, the Harvard professor offers a comprehensive and up-to-date volume that gathers analysis of these and numerous other topics in one place."--Choice"Ambitious and thought-provoking, Higher Education in America represents an informed and informative addition to ongoing debates at the national, state, and institutional levels about the aims higher education ought to aspire to and how best to achieve them."--David M. Brown & John Thelin, Teachers College Record
From the Back Cover
"This is an exceedingly ambitious book. In fact, I know of nothing remotely comparable to it in scope or scale. One of its many refreshing aspects is its unfailing common sense. Bok presents the most balanced account of American higher education that I know of, stating clearly the many things that are right about it, but also highlighting problems and challenges. He has an unerring eye for the right 'big questions,' and readers of all kinds will appreciate his focus on these questions."--William G. Bowen, president emeritus of Princeton University
"Informative, provocative, and engaging, this is a very important book that should be of great interest not only to those working in higher education but to everyone else who is concerned about the future of America's colleges and universities. Its value lies in Bok's thorough analysis of some of the most urgent challenges facing higher education--and in his recommendations for actions to address them."--James J. Duderstadt, president emeritus of the University of Michigan
"This book is like a very thorough checkup of a patient by an expert physician. Bok inspects nearly every major organ of the U.S. higher education system, provides a carefully balanced report on each, and concludes that the patient is in good overall health but showing signs of misuse and neglect in certain parts. The book includes exceptionally valuable observations about the system's strengths and weaknesses--and about remedies for some of its problems."--Steven G. Brint, vice provost of the University of California, Riverside
"This is a major contribution to the literature on American higher education. It provides unusually comprehensive coverage and addresses controversies in an exemplary manner, fairly representing different positions and relying on empirical research to reach conclusions. I think this book will have a broad appeal throughout higher education. I can envision most administrators having a copy on their bookshelves, a ready reference and guide for their own pronouncements on the state of higher education."--Roger L. Geiger, Pennsylvania State University
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful. Extremely Credible, Balanced, Focuses on Key Issues - By Loyd Eskildson The impressive global rankings of American universities reflect the accomplishments of only a handful of institutions and is largely due to the excellence of their research, rather than the quality of education provided. It is also likely that our impressive standing owes less to the success of our own system than it does the weakness of foreign universities - long over-regulated and under-financed. Germany, France, and China have recently been investing in improving their universities, and China has also undertaken a prodigious building program and made major strides in increasing its numbers of published papers. Our attractiveness to students abroad may also be declining - our market share has dropped sharply in the last decade, though we still attract the largest number of overseas students. Meanwhile, young Americans attending college need a better education than before, now that accounting, finance, legal and scientific research, and engineering can easily be outsourced to overseas graduates willing to work for much less. Fortunately, Dr. Bok's book focuses on what colleges and universities can do to help themselves, starting now, not on what others 'should' do to help.For-profit colleges accounted for less than 10% of undergraduate enrollments in 2008-09, 24% of Pell Grants, and 26% of federally guaranteed loans. Some spend more on recruiting than instruction, and many engage in deceptive practices - per a GAO investigation. Their students are also less likely to graduate w/I 6 years than students of similar qualifications who attended not-for-profits, and their earnings average 8 - 9% less. Thus, for-profit competition is helping educate more individuals, but at the expense of creating new problems.How much are graduates actually learning? Estimates of freshman-to-senior gains in the 1990s (Pascarella, Terenzini - 2005) made estimates, using standard deviations. Critical thinking improved by .5 std. dev. (equivalent to moving from the 50th percentile to the 67%), use of reason to address ill-structured problems - .9 std. dev., reading and writing ability - .62, and decline in authoritarianism and dogma - .8. They also estimated the 'value-added' from college (in addition to otherwise normal maturation and self-growth) - they found little reduction in the improvement in critical thinking, but reading/writing added growth declined to .37, science to .50, etc. Cook and Baldi (2006) found that over 50% of college seniors were unable to eg. compare credit card offers with different interest rates or summarize arguments of newspaper editorials. (The 'good news' is that their literacy was significantly higher than the average of adults.)A 2010 report on how undergraduates allocate their time at the Univ. of California found students averaged 13 hours/week studying, 12 hours socializing with friends, 11 hours using computers for fun, 6 hours watching TV, 6 hours exercising, 5 hours in hobbies, and 3 hours in other forms of entertainment. College authorities contribute to these distractions by organizing or making available innumerable extracurricular activities. Meanwhile, the proportion of freshmen reporting they were bored in class rose from 26% in 1985 to 40% in 2000; another study found the current rate to be 37.1%. A 2009 survey of seniors found half hadn't written a single paper over 20 pages in length during the entire year, 32% hadn't taken any courses requiring reading over 40 pages/week. Yet, GPAs continue to rise.How To Teach: While over 90% of professors believe that developing students' ability to think is the most important aim of undergraduate education, the most common method of teaching is lecturing - repeatedly shown to be one of the least effective means for doing so. Moreover, students also retain very little of what they learn - less than half by the time the lecture ends, and only 20% a week later. Researchers have also found that students typically write down about 1/3 of the information conveyed, and not always accurately. Students are typically not required or even encouraged to work at problems in groups even though dozens of studies have found collaborative efforts to solve problems are usually more effective than simply studying alone - best when students first have tried individually to resolve assigned problems before meeting to discuss their answers with other students.Feedback about student learning is usually belated and infrequent, at best, often coming entirely from a midterm and final exam. The most common types of undergraduate tests are multiple-choice or short-answer questions. Even essay exams often simply call on students' memory instead of testing their deep understanding and ability to apply the knowledge through reasoned analysis to solve problems and answer questions different from those covered in class.Most instructors have never had training in pedagogy. Lecturing is also the easiest and cheapest form of teaching. Few deans and provosts are knowledgeable about empirical research on student learning, and even fewer use it to persuade their faculties to try/use the most effective methods.On the other hand, law school professors have long managed to teach using the Socratic method in classes of 100+ students, and many business school instructors carry on lively discussions of business problems with 80 - 100 students at a time. Harvard's Michael Sandel makes extensive use of Socratic discussion with 800+ undergraduates in a single class - though only a small minority may have a chance to speak during an hour, the rest participate vicariously and the late-morning course is famous for provoking continued debate over lunch. Other instructors have found additional ways of introducing more active learning into large classes at little cost. For example, students can be asked to write short papers on a question raised by the course and then meet in small groups to discuss answers with one another. Experiments have shown students are highly motivated to write for their peers and believe the comments they get are helpful. Instructors can also distribute model answers to give students an idea of what a well-crafted paper looks like.Eric Mazur (Harvard, physics) requires students to submit short answers to assigned questions prior to each class - not only to ensure they've read the assigned material but to also alert him in advance to difficulties they're having so he can adjust accordingly. During class lectures he pauses about every 15 minutes to pose a question and view their aggregated electronic responses. If a substantial number get it wrong, he repeats the material, asks students to discuss the same question wit those sitting nearby, and then answer again. Because students know they'll be asked to solve problems in class, they pay closer attention. Students who correctly answered originally deepen their understanding by trying to understand why their neighbors erred and how they can be helped to understand. Overall results show the students not only achieved far greater understanding, they also demonstrated somewhat better retention on recall questions.Any serious attempt to improve the quality of teaching must be accompanied by rigorous efforts to assess the results. To be accepted by faculty, they should be used to help develop and improve the testing (unless already done so by a credible group - eg. the CLA), and not used for purposes of accountability or distributing rewards.Reform: Universities have been quick to act when it was obviously in their financial interest, but they've been especially slow to act on improving the quality of their education. The methods of education they use do not undergo anything like the constant process of testing and revision common to many fields of research in which they engage. Reform generally requires an effort from outside the faculty. Most of the time, however, these voices are unheeded or are dismissed as inapplicable to the special conditions of one's institution. Accrediting organizations have followed the Higher Education Act in 1998 that stipulated they give their highest priority to persuading colleges to measure student learning, but one follow-up study of a group of 19 colleges/universities found 'nearly 40% of the institutions have yet to communicate the findings to their campus communities, and only about 25% engaged in any active response to the data.' The good news is that the prevalence of extensive lecturing has slightly declined (54.2% in 1991-93; 47.4% in 2010-11), and class discussions, cooperative learning, and group projects somewhat increased. The growth of online learning may further help, driven by efforts to lower costs. another impetus - the anticipated use of machine grading for CLA written essays.Studies of student progress regularly find greater variation among students in any given college than between them. Bok suggests studies of those students doing better than expected, as well as encouraging accreditors to offer special recognition to colleges improving beyond 'expected' progress. Bok also fears that the relative ease of measuring dropout rates will lead to neglecting the need to improve education efficiency.Research: The largest share of support for university research (almost 60%) comes from the federal government, and the recipients are heavily concentrated - over 80% goes to 100 institutions, especially medical schools and their affiliated hospitals.A study published in 2008 found publishing had become more important to promotion in 62% of all language and literature departments, while the percentage of department chairs reporting that research counted more than teaching more than doubled - from 35% in 1968 to 76% in 2005. Thus, the more hours/week faculty spend in the classroom, the smaller their paycheck. Ironically, these distorted emphases have led to over half of faculty complaining they can no longer keep up with their field.A staggering 98% of all published articles in the arts and humanities are never cited, 75% for social sciences, 25% in the STEM areas. The average number of citations/article is between 1 and 2. Almost all the scientific papers most frequently cited and considered most significant are written by members of a handful of leading departments. Most academic writing today is high specialized and bears little relation to the subject matter of undergraduate courses.Another problem with university research - conflicts of interest involving even small support from companies having an obvious stake in a particular outcome. Clinical trials paid for by industry or conducted by an investigator with financial ties to a firm were 3.6X more likely to reach findings favorable to the company than those independently funded and w/o financial conflict. Another example - 94% of studies of the effects of secondhand smoke funded by industry found no harmful effects, vs. 13% for those independently funded. More evidence - 11% of a sample of 809 published reports on drug and health products supposedly authored by academic researchers actually had been ghostwritten by representatives of the firm sponsoring the research.Self-reported data do not support allegations that research detracts from teaching efforts; however, Bok is silent about the obvious associated loss of teaching time.Careful extrapolations suggests that by 2020 China may surpass the U.S. in the number of new STEM PhDs/year, share of worldwide investments in R&D, percentage of papers published in refereed journals, and share of global exports of high-tech products. Since 1960 the proportion of immigrants among active scientists in the U.S. has grown from 7.2% to almost 30%; it is unknown how many will stay after conditions improve in their homelands. Meanwhile, financial support for biomedical research grows, while that for physical sciences and engineering stagnates in the U.S., older and well-established investigators find it easier to obtain funding than younger scientists - despite the fact that many of the most important discoveries have been made by researchers at comparatively younger ages, the processes for obtaining funding and approvals are overly complex and time-consuming (over 40% of university scientists' time).Tenure: Tenure, plus the outlawing of mandatory retirement, removes opportunities for new researchers who could bring greater vitality. However, a large and growing majority lack tenure.Law schools use a number of local practitioners to teach litigation, medical schools use local practitioners to teach diagnoses, but business schools to not follow the pattern and use local CEOs to teach administration, etc. They have not yet succeeded in devising a program of study that clearly gives their alumni an important advantage on the job, except in a few specialized career areas. Bill Gates, Jack Welch and others are obvious examples of excellent business leaders that did not pursue business school; McKinsey substitutes a short business overview as consultant preparation for outstanding graduates from other areas.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Required Reading for University Faculty By Steve Derek Bok is a positivist writing to the postmodern world of higher education. He firmly believes that there is an objective truth about colleges and universities, and he is determined to martial every ounce of empirical evidence to prove this. His scientific beliefs are in a higher education that he imagines as beautiful and deserving of love. And his affections are not blind. He details every disfigurement.The book's strengths are in the sections on undergraduate education and professional education. The center of the story is the tension that is mounting around the need to improve the quality of undergraduate instruction. His evaluation of professional schools and how they balance the demands of the academy with the demands of the profession is masterful. (Plot spoiler alert.) Medical schools are given high marks and business schools are found lacking.The weakness of the book is the Steinbergian view West. His core audience is the Northeast, but yet when he speaks of the needs to improve quality (learning and instruction) and quantity (enrollment and graduation) in higher education, he gives the elite selective schools the principal's hall pass. His view seems to be that the real job of educating America will fall to comprehensive colleges that are in a distant land beyond the Charles. Other than a fanciful idea about "admissions lotteries" for selective schools, he makes no real attempt to call for collective action by the Eastern elites. This is unfortunate, because he might be one of the few voices that has the strength to do just that. (His best opportunity in the text is missed in his chapter on "Graduate Education.")At times, Bok sounds like he has entered the muddy trenches of Midwestern administration when he rails against NCAA athletics and unhelpful competition created by magazine college rankings. But his chief credential is that he was President of Harvard. Were these ever his daily concern? What seems clear is that he has attempted to expand his audience, while still writing for the Crimson Choir.The language at the end of the book is wistful and yearning. He counsels future academic administrators "to do what they can with carrots and sticks" (p.405). His real audience that he attempts to reach is the collegium of faculty across America. This is where he seems to have placed his faith and hope for the future of higher education. And this is probably as it should be...trying to reach the people that love education, and not just care about it.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Thoroughly Comprehensive Account of the Future of American Higher Education By Dr. Laurence Raw HIGHER EDUCATION IN AMERICA offers a thoroughly comprehensive account of the strengths and weakness of the contemporary American higher education system. He touches on every single aspect of activity - administration, teaching, research, the commercial role, the future of under- and graduate education, the admission systems - focusing in particular on strengths and weaknesses. With the help of several statistical surveys, he makes a strong case for the American education system to move with the times; to take into account new developments in technology and cognitive psychology and rethink its general approach towards pedagogy and learning. Too many professors, he argues, are set in their ways, preferring to teach to their own specialisms using methods that to a large extent seem outdated (such as the lecture) with little concern for the ways in which learners learn. He is particularly critical of those institutions that spend considerable sums on sports education - for example, on athletics or football - which he believes often favor those with sporting rather than academic prowess. He also believes in the importance of adopting interdisciplinary rather than discipline-specific approaches to educational reform, as the former approach might prove more cost-effective as well as promoting more innovation. Innovation, he believes, is especially important in US business schools, many of which are staffed by professors with little or no practical experience of the business world. HIGHER EDUCATION IN AMERICA is also instructive for non-American readers - although Bok is concerned to emphasize the special qualities of American higher education (as opposed to its competitors in Europe and Asia), many of the shortcomings he identifies as characteristic of American institutions are also characteristic of other institutions worldwide. One of the main themes of the book is the need to promote cross-cultural competence; the need for professors and learners to understand one another better. Perhaps American universities and universities elsewhere need to consult more closely with one another; not only to promote cross-cultural understanding, but also to provide global solutions to some of the problems identified in the book. Through such methods it might be possible to avoid reinventing the wheel: doing the same things in different places at different times. HIGHER EDUCATION IN AMERICA is a valuable text for anyone interested in the future of higher education, whether in the United States or elsewhere.
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