The Future Of Higher Education
...Education in a Global Economy
Tamara L. Marlar #0905
Bethel College
SUCCESS Program
February 5, 2007
Business, Government & the International Economy
MOD 430
Bob Owens
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Introduction
Achieving and sustaining quality in higher education is a tough challenge. A new stakeholder contract may be needed, and better performance measures would help light the way forward. It is a national imperative that we join together to transform the American higher education system for the 21st century. It is a state responsibility to design the goals and strategies to accomplish that. The cost of doing nothing affects not only students, but also families, our states, and our country.
Global Education
Higher education is attracting unprecedented public attention across the globe. In Germany a competition to create universities of excellence is fuelling debate; in France discussions continue about struggling mainstream universities versus more well-endowed grandes écoles; in the UK there is a debate about education as a public good versus faculties as market-oriented enterprises; and in the US public focus continues on accessibility, competition and costs. Along with other policymakers, members of the commission have been greatly influenced by Thomas Friedman's recent book, The World is Flat. Friedman lays out a logical and alarming case that the United States is losing its competitive advantage in a new, high-tech, highly mobile global economy. This lack of competitiveness should be a matter of the highest urgency for federal and state policymakers. It is our contention that higher education policy should be at the center of this discussion. Higher education is both the problem and the solution. The nation is
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losing its competitiveness because it has failed to focus on how higher...
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