The relationship between education and work are addressed by a vice provost of Northeastern University in testimony to the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Attention is directed to the philosophical and social bases of cooperative education, its impact on learning, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. At Northeastern, the cooperative education model involves a 5-year program at the undergraduate level in which the students devote their first year to full-time study on campus. For the remaining 4 years, student participants alternate between academic study and cooperative work assignments on a quarterly basis. The university also operates graduate-level cooperative education programs in several fields. For cooperative education students, advantages include clarification of career goals, student motivation for study and work, and the development of personal maturity. For employers, cooperative education offers a medium for recruitment and retention of employees. Weaknesses include the difficulty in achieving a meaningful relationship between work and study in the arts and humanities areas. (SW)