This article presents the author's view that online education mistakes information for education and training for teaching. He presents a historical look at "distance learning" as the original correspondence courses offered through the mail, and he observes that the past and present technologies were missing the main piece of…

The author has lived in Japan over twenty-five years, teaching in higher education for more than twenty. He observes that it has been alarming to see the inroads of ideological activism in the academic community in Japan, which is having unfortunate effects on the curricula of many schools, including his own, Hokusei Gakuen University. In this…

One of the main factors implicated in the atomization of contemporary life, both as cause and effect, is the brunt and tenor of modern liberal education. For it cannot be denied that liberal education in the classic sense has severed its mandate to instruct and enlighten from the archive of the past and has been replaced by the concept of…

The question of the relation between liberal education and political liberty, perennially important, is driven for this forum by the Obama administration's endorsement of "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," according to which the chief ends of postsecondary civic education ought to include the promotion of sweeping…

The claim that faculty conduct research is one of the main justifications for the modern university. Supposedly, academe carries out important, cutting-edge inquiries in which society has an interest. In fact, states this author, research at American universities is becoming narrow and artificial, out of touch with social realities, and of…

The author expresses his doubt that the general higher education bubble will burst anytime soon. Although tuition, student housing, and book costs have all increased substantially, he believes it is still likely that the federal government will continue to pour billions into higher education, largely because Americans have been persuaded that it…

Student protests and occupations are not new phenomena. On February 10, 1355, what came to be known as the St. Scholastica Day riot occurred. Oxford students and townspeople clashed after a dispute in a local tavern and almost one hundred people were killed. But while student protests have occurred throughout history, the 1960s introduced a new…

In this article, the author discusses the shift from "scholarships" to "financial aid" which was initiated by the federal government during World War II. On June 22, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944--commonly known as the G.I. Bill of Rights--one provision of which gave veterans financial…

In this article, the author, founder of Yorktown University, an online institution whose focus is training for citizenship, describes the often circuitous path to higher education accreditation. The author's story of what happened on his way to reform higher education is a tale of the political ability of traditional institutions to block startup…

The announcement in June 2007 by Antioch University that it would be closing Antioch College produced a great deal of commentary. One of the better offerings was a 2007 piece in the "Weekly Standard" by Charlotte Allen, which ran under the title "Death by Political Correctness." Her analysis presents a complex picture, but Allen leaves no doubt…

The federal Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, defines a "historically" black institution of higher education as "any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principle mission was, and is, the education of black Americans." They are usually referred to as HBCUs. Most private black colleges…

America has always felt ambivalent towards its armed forces. During national emergencies it has shown them support, but during longer eras of calm this has often turned to distrust and scorn. LTC Robert Bateman examines the underpinnings of this uneasy and complex relationship, which has been mirrored and expressed most intensely (sometimes in…

Small programs can make a big difference on college campuses. At Duke University, a few dedicated people, with the support of college administrators, exploited the all-too-evident liabilities of curriculum fragmentation, political correctness, and the lack of direction felt by undergraduate students to create intellectually valuable and…

In pausing to reflect on twenty years service tending the fragile vineyards of higher education reform as president and one of the founders of the National Association of Scholars, Stephen H. Balch stops to toast his hardy fellow vintners. Dr. Balch raises a weary but wiser glass to those who across the years and in many states have braved harsh…

In this carefully documented essay, Russell K. Nieli outlines the major transformation in American higher education that began at the end of the nineteenth century. Today's research- and vocation-driven private universities began as Christian institutions founded by zealous evangelizers, while public colleges embraced a watered-down version of the…