Synopses & Reviews
Education has been disrupted dramatically by culture, technology and economics. The only certainty about the universities of the future is that they will not thrive if left unchanged. Jonathan Cole, John Mitchell Mason Professor at Columbia University, and its former provost, is one of the country's leading academic researchers into higher education. A fierce champion of the merits and benefits of the great American research university, Cole identifies the potential fault-lines that threaten the future of universities and the strategic changes that successful colleges will have to make in order to preserve their intellectual relevance, economic viability and social mission.
In turn he examines:
Admissions policies;
Examinations;
Cost;
Undergraduate education;
The role of the humanities
The place for professional schools;
Research campuses of the future;
Sports;
Leadership and governance;
The intellectual and legal threats to academic freedom.
Using his deep knowledge of the history and traditions that underpin US higher education, Cole separates the essential from the fashionable. Higher education is a vital national resource, and an economic proving ground. It is the bedrock of American business and society and it must adapt in order to remain globally competitive and intellectually valuable. The culture of the great American universities reflects the moral and social foundations of the republic itself: they are a litmus test of values and philosophies, and their future affects everyone.
Synopsis
A renowned academic leader identifies the ways America's great universities should evolve in the decades ahead to maintain their global preeminence and enhance their intellectual stature and social mission as higher education confronts the twenty-first-century developments in technology, humanities, culture, and economics.
Jonathan R. Cole, former provost and current University Professor at Columbia University, addresses some of the biggest challenges facing the modern American university:
- developing effective admission policies,
- creating the most meaningful examinations,
- dealing with rising costs,
- making undergraduate education central to the university's mission,
- exploring the role of the humanities,
- facilitating new discoveries and innovation,
- determining the place for professional schools,
- developing the research campuses of the future,
- assessing the role of sports,
- designing leadership and governance,
- and combating intellectual and legal threats to academic freedom.
About the Author
Jonathan R. Cole, currently the John Mitchell Mason Professor at Columbia University, is widely known throughout the United States for his fourteen years (1989-2003) as Columbias provost, holding the position for the second-longest tenure in the universitys 250-year history. He has also served as dean of faculties and vice president for arts and sciences. He lives in New York.