In recent years, it has become something of a commonplace to say that American institutions are losing their sense of purpose. Universities, once understood as places for the disciplined pursuit…
In the realm of state higher-education reform, Texas and Florida are often in the spotlight. But North Carolina’s slow, thoughtful reforms have led to important and lasting changes for Tar…
In C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces, Queen Orual writes the story of her life to indict the gods. “Being, for all these reasons, free from fear, I will write…
Late last year, the Martin Center debuted a major new resource for readers seeking state-by-state higher-education analysis and policy coverage. The project is a small part of the Martin Center’s…
American college and university campuses are at risk of becoming echo chambers. Many students are afraid to express their opinions because it’s unclear how their professors and peers will receive…
For more than a century, the traditional academic semester—typically lasting 15 or 16 weeks—has been the dominant calendar in American higher education. Yet this format is increasingly being reconsidered. A…
Tuition hikes in higher education are painful, reluctantly accepted, and justified with promises that the money will go to essential needs. If students really must pay more, an important question…
I am not a lawyer, nor am I a product of the American legal academy. But a patriotic higher-education policy cannot leave the legal profession to the lawyers alone. We…
Startling news from the world of student-loan reform: A federal intervention appears to be not only working on its own terms but producing beneficial knock-on effects. With apologies to the…
As a professor of the classical liberal arts, I began reading Bob Pepperman Taylor’s new book, Liberal Education and Democracy, with interest. Taylor, who teaches law and politics at the…