I’m following up my post of a few days ago to provide the report (marked “draft of 08/09/06”) that was approved on 08/10/06 to become, with minor editing and revising, the official final report of Secretary Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education. The report was approved with only one dissenting vote -- from David Ward, President of ACE. The report appears to differ from the previous draft version only in some differences of opinion concerning the loans available to students as financial aid. The following quote from the report captures its spirit and frames its detailed recommendations:
“To meet the challenges of the 21st century, higher education must change from a system primarily based on reputation to one based on performance.”
Several key recommendations address why and how colleges and universities can improve and account for critical aspects of institutional performance in ways that would allow the public and policy makers to compare the resulting performance measures among like institutions -- recommendations that could drive a cultural shift in higher education of major proportions over the years immediately ahead.
If you’re a Chronicle subscriber, read Federal Panel Approves Final Draft Report on Higher Education, With One Member Dissenting to learn more about the Commission’s final meeting of 08/10/06.
To some extent, some institutions will probably continue to flourish based largely on reputation, but I think students are becoming more financially savvy with their educational dollars and are growing more demanding with their expectations.
Posted by: thebizofknowledge | September 06, 2006 at 04:44 PM