Librería Samer Atenea
Librería Aciertas (Toledo)
Kálamo Books
Librería Perelló (Valencia)
Librería Elías (Asturias)
Donde los libros
Librería Kolima (Madrid)
Librería Proteo (Málaga)
Higher education in America is the best in the world, but it is also desperately in needof reform. Lacking effective competition and insulated from market forces,universities have created a model fundamentally at odds with free market principles.In a system few outsiders comprehend, universities uniquely are run for the benefit offaculty.Increasingly, top universities have come to resemble closed academic societies.Admission is by way of a Ph.D. degree. Mastery of abstract research for its own sakeis the route to promotion and advancement. Teaching is of incidental importance fortenure - the goal of every academic. Achieving tenure assures long-term employmentwithout mandatory retirement plus freedom from inhibitions on speech or actions.Faculty share governance with an administration although faculty lack managerialskills or responsibility for their recommendations. Politically conformist, facultythink one way and recruit newcomers who think alike. Given time, institutions that donot attract strong leaders or demand accountability from faculty are destined tounderperform.Cracks in the seams of the current system are emerging in out-of-control costs andgreater competition. Lacking normal measures of efficiency or productivity, universities’ costs tend to spiral higher - withfuture escalation a given. The trends are clear but not yet ominous. Without reform, America’s universities are coasting. Canreforms take hold before a crisis is reached? Only if strong voices demand it. Reform from universities that are characterizedby intellectual inbreeding and self-regulation cannot be expected. Assuring future generations of a quality education is thecollective responsibility and duty of the citizenry. Based on an inside-out view of universities, this book provides theammunition for such a campaign. It provides the information and stimulus for reform for legislators, community leaders,academics and average citizens.
