New England has a rich history of innovation and economic prosperity due, in part, to the fact that the region is home to some of the nation's most prestigious higher education institutions as well as a wide array of other postsecondary offerings. Nearly 60% of the students that Thomas College, Maine, serves are "first-generation"…

Europe's knowledge economies need high-level skills, the capacity to innovate and to support democratic societies. In this perspective, the main objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the relevance of higher education and how this is promoted in various countries in Europe and beyond. The evidence, conclusions and…

Europe's knowledge economies need high-level skills, the capacity to innovate and to support democratic societies. In this perspective, the main objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the relevance of higher education and how this is promoted in various countries in Europe and beyond. The evidence, conclusions and…

Recent initiatives in higher education have been designed to increase Black undergraduate male collegiate retention and persistence through graduation for this historically underrepresented population. Although institutional leaders in higher education have focused on creating more inclusive campuses, designing and implementing programs to retain…

For educators in the field of higher education and judicial affairs, issues are growing. Campus adjudicators must somehow maximize every opportunity for student education and development in the context of declining resources and increasing expectations of public accountability. Numbers of student misconduct cases, including matters of violence and…

Presents a dramatic scenario involving a legislative budget committee hearing to illustrate the often conflicting demands for program accountability and student development confronting student services departments at colleges and universities. (Author/NB)

Students often arrive at universities ill-prepared for the reflective practice needed to derive maximum benefits from a Freshman Seminar. At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, portfolio projects are semester-long assignments in which the portfolio serves as a capstone activity to help freshmen more thoroughly analyze their first year…

Maintains that the Management By Objectives System, now being employed by many student personnel administrators, minimizes humaneness and maximizes alienation in many cases. Presents an alternative model for meeting demands for a systematic, industrial-business model of accountability. (Author)

Whether college is worth what it costs is reviewed in this summarization of the author's book, "Investment in Learning." A survey of the literature leads to the following four conclusions. (1) that the economic returns of higher education, in the form of higher earnings, improved technology, and a higher gross national product, alone offset the…

Discusses the need for systems of performance indicators (PI) to measure important aspects of university operations. Comparison of three models--production, student development, and systems--makes clear that model choice yields fundamentally different PI systems and, in turn, different contexts of relevance. Suggests a hybrid model, combining the…

Discusses how the current management perspective in assessing student outcomes can be redirected so that assessment is used primarily to promote student development and to enhance learning. Defines assessment; describes development of an assessment program, including determining goals and assessment needs, when and how to assess, and choice of…

College outcomes evaluation is discussed in two papers. In "The Political Economy of Assessment," Joseph P. O'Neill considers standards of accountability, American reliance on faculty to assess, and the danger of validating quality by external examination. By using the credit-hour system, a quantity indicator (time), is used as a…

Plans for program assessment within the various units of the University System of Georgia are presented. The Subcommittee on Academic Degree Program Assessment believed the University System of Georgia should encourage and support a sustained effort to assess academic programs resulting in baccalaureate degrees, that the implementation of program…

Three presentations from the Third National Conference on Assessment in Higher Education are included. In "Assessment and Human Values: Confessions of a Reformed Number Cruncher," Alexander W. Astin, focuses on measuring education productivity, assessment lessons from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, a talent-development…

Using the Defining Issues Test, examined whether athletic participation enhances or detracts from moral development when female and male athletes (n=37) were compared with nonathletes (n=21) at a western university. Males scored lower than females and athletes tended to score lower than nonathletes. (JBJ)