This book is an exploration of the current debate about quality in higher education. Using a construct of "heresies," it suggests a set of guiding principles in four key areas of university life: curriculum (because selecting what is worth learning in universities is not random); teaching methods (because universities offer opportunities for learning that one cannot do on one's own); research (because some research is better carried out alongside teaching rather than in other settings); and college organization (because institutions are ends as well as means in meeting social demands). The book suggests one possible approach toward a philosophy of higher education, arguing that because uncertainty is endemic in most research on the process or means of higher education, it is fundamentally impossible to achieve philosophical consensus regarding the purposes of higher education. It is further argued that what is needed are threshold measures of quality that identify effective practice rather than ratings-based judgments of sufficiency. Chapters cover the study of higher education, curriculum, teaching methods, research, college organization, and students. The appendix defines the 16 forms of heresy: determinism, academicism, utilitarianism, survivalism, pedagogicism, abstractionism, occupationalism, mechanism, sponsorism, libertarianism, departmentalism, opportunism, collegialism, monasticism, homogenism, and individualism. (Contains 250 references.) (CH)