The quest for quality : the challenge for undergraduate education in the 1990s /

A sequel to Surviving the Eighties, (CH, Jun'80) which attempted to chart a course through the troubled academic waters of the previous decade, this volume might be viewed as a guide for higher educators wishing to run meaner and leaner institutions according to the conservative principles of W. Bennett, R. Cheney, A. Bloom, et al. It is essentially of two parts: the first reviews recent criticism of higher education--especially by those who decry the egalitarian reforms of the 1960s and '70s. This is the familiar list of declines in general education courses, in faculty preparation, in presidential leadership, in definitions of quality, and in institutional selectivity. The second part calls for the end to these abuses (credit for remedial courses, self-paced learning, competency-based instruction, dependence on part-time faculty) and offers specific examples of how to restore academic quality to higher education. The emphasis here is on ways to rebuild the undergraduate curriculum, recruit and train faculty, restore integrity to grading, and revive the academic function of the presidency. A major limitation is authors' casual treatment of issues of social equity--how the poor, how the underrepresented will be fairly served by their vision for higher education. A useful bibliography. -L. S. Zwerling, New York University