From Phi Beta Kappa

A faculty committee at Yale University released a report in April arguing that American colleges and universities share responsibility for their own declining public standing. It points to high costs, opaque admissions practices, uneven academic standards, and concerns about free expression as key drivers of growing skepticism about higher education. The report also outlines 20 steps that Yale should take to improve trust, including a call to reaffirm its commitment to arts and sciences education. 

The report has drawn a range of responses on and off campus.  Read the Report of the Committee on Trust in Higher Education and explore a range of responses to it in Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Yale News. [My colleague Brian Soucek has written critically about the report for the Chronicle of Higher Education.].

The report specifically “identified three immediate factors behind the rise of public distrust [in higher education]. The first involves the soaring price of higher education . . . , along with the perception that college, graduate, and professional school are no longer worth the money and sacrifice they demand. The second focuses on the college admissions system—specifically, the question of who gets in and why. The third includes an array of issues about what is said and taught on university campuses, including matters of free speech, political bias, and self-censorship. We also found important problems related to trust within the university itself, including concerns that grade inflation, new technologies, and bureaucratic expansion have undermined the university’s academic mission. The range of topics revealed another challenge related to declining trust: widespread uncertainty about the fundamental purpose and mission of higher education.”

Food for thought.