Nationwide, higher education enrollment has been trending down for several years. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2019 was the eighth straight year of decline, with an overall drop of nearly 10 percent since 2011. The reasons for this are many, including political, economic, and social factors. But the main one is demographic: Fewer … Continue reading “How Colleges Can Survive the Coming Enrollment Crash”
This essay responds to the British architecture schools’ “Open Letter to the Architectural Community: A Call for Curriculum Change.” Since educating architects is a global problem, the analysis presented here is aimed at an international audience. We are at a pivotal point in recognizing the relationship between the built and natural environments and human health … Continue reading “Architecture Programs Need a Change: Put People First—Not ‘Art’”
“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” —Socrates Classical education—a tradition of education with ancient roots—is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to the current K-12 public education model. Its emphasis on reading the Great Books and making students active participants in their own education is appealing to parents and educators who … Continue reading “The Benefits of Renewing Education with the Socratic Method”
In The Soul of the American University published in 1994, the historian George Marsden gave a powerful account of how once-great pillars and trend-setters of American higher education have abandoned even a residual commitment to the Christian foundations on which they were founded. The cultural, political, social and economic upheavals of the 20th century moved … Continue reading “Can Independent Christian Study Centers Restore the Soul of Higher Education?”
The task of learning never ends for those who want to grow in wisdom. But in a world of eight- or ten-hour workdays, traffic jams, and daily responsibilities, it can be easy to put the life of the mind on the back burner. Besides time constraints, another difficulty is that education is expensive. For those … Continue reading “The Free Online Courses that Cultivate the Mind”
Many Americans crow that our higher education system is “the envy of the world,” even though it’s nearly impossible to point to any proof of that. In truth, however, some Americans look down on our system, saying that it is clearly inferior to that of other nations, such as Japan and Finland. A recent study … Continue reading “Which Country’s Higher Education System Is Best?”
Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from the 1910 introduction to The Harvard Classics by Charles W. Eliot, a long-serving president of Harvard and an advocate of a liberal arts education. In light of its wisdom about the value of the liberal arts and Eliot’s goal in making the classics accessible to every American, the … Continue reading “The 20th-Century Idea of a Cultivated Man”
Jumping right into a four-year university after high school isn’t for everybody. There are numerous reasons why, for some students, attending a community college and then transferring to a four-year university is the most prudent decision. For some, it’s financially practical. The low cost of community college allows students to virtually cut the cost of … Continue reading “Advising and Peer Connections: Helping Transfer Students Earn a College Degree”
Professors, particularly at research universities, wear many hats. On the one hand, they are instructors, entrusted to pass on knowledge to their students. On the other hand, they are researchers and are expected to add to their field’s body of knowledge. As a way to help professors balance their two roles, “discussion sections” have become … Continue reading “The Better Teacher: A Professor or Another Student?”
People who analyze and write about higher education generally fall into two camps. One camp consists of those who believe that our system is “the envy of the world” and just needs more public support to do its great work of improving our citizens and strengthening our economy. (For a sense of what that camp … Continue reading “Can American Higher Education Be Restored?”