The disciplinary major has long served as the backbone of higher education. Every student has at least one major, and each major prescribes a program of study that is supported by a series of courses both within the field and from the general education curriculum. Yet relying solely on the formal academic curriculum to achieve the outcomes of a…

Describes how a personal discovery of universities around the world initiating liberal education programs led to a new understanding of the value of liberal education for international development abroad and curricular adaptation in the United States. (EV)

Explains the Association of American Colleges and Universities' initiative to define the aims of twenty-first century undergraduate education, called "Greater Expectations: The Commitment to Quality as a Nation Goes to College." Then introduces articles that describe successful change and innovation at three colleges. (EV)

Describes the seven steps over a course of several years, which enabled Worcester Polytechnic Institute to implement and sustain a reconstruction of undergraduate education to involve no set curriculum, but rather three qualifying projects. (EV)

Describes strategic changes at Richland College including the consolidation and expansion of special programs through the Office of Academic Enrichment, and institutional improvements involving student learning undertaken during the process of re-accreditation. (EV)

Describes the process undertaken at King's College to create an invigorated teaching and learning environment, including a new Core Curriculum designed to ensure that students engage in cumulative and transferable learning in three general areas. (EV)

Asserts that knowledge has become for both individuals and economies a competitive advantage on a global scale. Discusses why developing countries require the creation of liberally educated citizens to contribute to their nation's social and economic advancement. (EV)

Suggests that the expansion of knowledge and its relevance to experience and society once belonged to civic professionals. Specialization in the academy replaced them with the power and the limitations of inward-looking disciplines. It is concluded that, drawing on both these traditions, educational innovation is called for now. (EV)

The development of academic programs focused on alternative modes of inquiry, interdisciplinary problems and value judgments. (Editor)

Asserts that student learning is strongly influenced by interaction with faculty, and suggests that John Henry Newman's experience of intellectual community in the faculty common room at Oriel College in Oxford serves as a model for faculty renewal. Suggests that any revision of the general education curriculum necessarily calls for the renewal of…

Asserting that liberal education initiatives are proliferating around the world, along with other globalizing trends, discusses how this trend requires a new understanding of reciprocity between U.S. institutions and developing countries and a rethinking of study abroad programs and collaborative initiatives. Describes such initiatives at Bard…

Suggests that John Dewey developed ideas regarding reflective thinking and the challenges to it that are relevant to our times. Asserts that education is intended to provide a repertoire of intellectual activities for systematic and disciplined thinking that can counteract assaults on reason. (EV)

Asserts that general education requires continuous attentiveness by all those involved in its design and implementation, because in general education courses, students get their first experience of the vitality of college-level learning. Suggests that the issues involved in the framework of effective general education include such things as…