This report is installment two of a three-part series describing research on stakeholder perceptions conducted under the auspices of the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement. The survey revealed that the public's assessment of higher education is generally favorable. The report includes discussion of survey responses and several data…

A 1984 essay, originally published at the outset of a recession, finds that, although significant problems can be predicted for higher education, there is also cause for celebration: institutions of higher education serve the nation well, and public attitudes are positive. Based on this stability, a guarded optimism about higher education's future…

The scientist and the citizen are locked in mutual suspicion. Only a comprehensive program for informing and engaging the public will restore confidence in the technology of the experts. (Editor/LBH)

A research study comparing vocational success of proprietary schools and public community college graduates, serves to demonstrate the distortion of research findings when those findings are contrary to the expectations of special interest groups and its effect on public policy. (KE)

Argues that American democracy is at a critical stage of development, with declining trust in government, citizens feeling displaced by a professional political class, derailed public interest, and policy that limits citizen deliberation and responsibility. Some instances of civic innovation, community organization, civic journalism, and efforts…

Criticism of "political correctness" on college campuses is no longer an internal debate about curriculum. Journalists and politicians have entered the debate, and the entire enterprise of the university, including healthy skepticism, has come under attack. The challenge is to make the university a place where different communities are…

The increased interests and capacities of our enlarged student body have widened faster than the faculty's ability to respond. (IR)

Similarities are drawn between trends in climbing costs for medical care and higher education. Possible effects of a prospective payment system for higher education are discussed. Colleges and universities are encouraged to retain the public trust by holding to their primary educational mission. (DB)

Ideas from current economic theory are applied to the nation's attitudes toward higher education. Ideas about asymmetric market information, trust markets, nonprofit firms, and maximization on campus are discussed. Public relations problems concerning accounting, deficits, and interest arbitrage are identified. The need for increased efficiency…

Three options are discussed for institutional responses to pressures from clients (students), competitors, taxpayers, citizen activists, and faculty: (1) to concentrate on the preservation of traditional values; (2) to maximize growth in new markets; or (3) to seek a new educational synthesis. (JT)

A new research organization at the University of Texas at Austin's Graduate School of Business aims to combat antibusiness feeling in society and to improve the image of the corporate executive. The organization and efforts of the Institute for Constructive Capitalism are discussed. (LBH)

Three summary judgments are rendered including many students are emerging from higher education without satisfactory intellectual skills and knowledge; higher education institutions aren't as efficient or productive as they should be; and the leaders of higher education have either misdiagnosed what its problems are or are trying to mislead…

American society and culture is seen as being in an educational reform movement. Fresh ideas, renewed commitment to educational standards, rising expectations for teacher competence and student performance, impatience with trendy innovations and flabby practices, and a faith in the importance of high quality education are discussed. (MLW)

The emergence of social science, not with the status of the natural sciences as predicted but as a professional endeavor with significant achievement, is discussed in the context of higher education. (MSE)

Recent issues in higher education suggest that universities are on the defensive, and that the educational community will be better served by trying to set a new agenda with the public. Two topics for this agenda are offered: the loss of a common perspective and the relationship of people to institutions. (LBH)