The Committee for Economic Development (CED), in collaboration with Public Agenda, launched this qualitative research effort to explore the attitudes of business leaders toward higher education. The goal is to understand the starting point of business executives: What are their views on the purposes, importance, strengths and weaknesses of the higher education system? What do they think is going on in terms of cost, access and quality? The research is a prelude to a public engagement effort with business leaders on these very issues.