Reforms We Want in 2024
Each year, the staff of the Martin Center share our higher-ed-reform dreams for the coming year. Will all of our wishes come true? Probably not. Nevertheless, we offer them here…
Posts tagged with
“general education”
Model Legislation: General Education Act
American universities always have recognized citizens’ authority to shape the educational mission of public universities, particularly with respect to “general education”—courses prerequisite to graduation. Appointed or elected university trustees usually…
How to Control College Costs in 2023 and Beyond
TRY WORKING HARDER The college-costs question invites a raft of sensible responses. But I’m a simple guy, and I’ll offer a simple place to start: Students, teachers, and staff should…
Making General Education Meaningful
Higher education serves many purposes. One purpose dominates, however: to students, their parents, future employers, government officials, and many academic administrators, higher education is all about preparing students for the…
The Limits of Expertise
As a professor devoted to his college’s “pre-disciplinary” core curriculum, I was hooked by David Epstein’s title, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. The book is chock-full of…
Many NC Students Are Missing out on Core Knowledge
What will they learn? That is the question that the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has been asking America’s colleges for thirteen years in a report by the…
A Conversation with the Chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill
On December 13th, 2019, Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz became the 12th chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to his appointment, he had been serving as interim…
North Carolina Colleges Shouldn’t Confuse Cafeteria-Style Curriculum with Strong Liberal Arts
There are a lot of good reasons to question the value of a traditional college degree. Tuition costs have been rising at a rate that’s almost eight times faster than…
Fixing a Liberal Arts Education Requires a Standardized Curriculum
In higher education, the value of a liberal arts education has been frequently debated. Defenders on the left argue that it exposes students to coursework and teaches critical thinking skills…
The Four Perspectives of Higher Education Policy Explained
Explaining higher education policy is never easy (even to people who are involved in it). Over the years, while training young writers for the Martin Center, I have come up…