The United States Air Force Academy, United States Naval Academy, and United States Military Academy are America's three largest service academies. They are "the" primary undergraduate institutions and commissioning sources that educate and develop the officers who are expected to lead this nation's armed forces. They are special places that have…

Within higher education in the United States and Canada, calls to promote global awareness and global literacy among undergraduate students have become increasingly urgent. Yet, there are multiple challenges in achieving these outcomes. One challenge lies in making this "literacy" authentic and relevant for diverse students aspiring to be…

Through its signature initiative, Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP), the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is promoting a vision for learning that begins in school: Starting in School . . . Rigorous and rich curriculum focused on the essential learning outcomes; comprehensive, individualized, and…

Despite research showing the broad impact that the study of foreign languages has on the cognitive development of young people, and despite the importance of language expertise for America's economic and geopolitical interests in the twenty-first century, the teaching of world languages has been marginalized within the American educational system…

The old expression about the carrot and the stick, which refers to the application of reward and punishment to induce action, dates back to the days when pack mules were used for transportation. The mules would move toward carrots that dangled just ahead of them--and move all the faster because they feared drivers with sticks behind them. In 2012,…

Since March of 2009, the Utah System of Higher Education has been a partner with the Lumina Foundation for Education in the Tuning USA project, Lumina's first experiment in introducing the European concept of degree "tuning" to American academia. Developed in the European Union as a way to create common degree standards across multiple nations,…

The conversation in higher education has shifted, moving from a focus on what students know to a focus on whether they know how to think and, more importantly, toward the goal of providing skills needed for living and working in the twenty-first century. In this article, the authors present national evidence regarding the impact of intentional…

When the author attended a Network for Academic Renewal conference sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in 2011, he was surprised by the level of skepticism expressed from the podium about proprietary higher education. This article is intended as a response. From his perspective as a for-profit educator, the…

In recent years, the health professions have moved from "eminence-based" solutions to "evidence-based" problem solving. This evolution provides new opportunities to implement integrative curricula for those preparing for the health professions. These new curricula can be built on the Essential Learning Outcomes identified through the Association…

Although the author has been teaching for over a quarter century, he was never trained in, nor truly understood, "outcomes assessment." He regarded it as a task to be completed for an outside accreditor that had little relation to his real "liberal arts" goals for students. Those goals include teaching critical self-awareness, developing…

"The Quality Imperative" was approved by the Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in December 2009. This statement focuses on the core issue of educational quality. Both employers and educators know that the higher education quality shortfall is just as urgent as the attainment shortfall. Today's employers…

For many years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) has been working with other institutions in the University of Wisconsin System to change the conversation about higher education in the state. In the spring of 2006, these partners participated in a systemwide advisory group convened to promote better understanding of liberal…

At the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, a new vision for college learning is clearly in view. Through its Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) initiative, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has outlined what contemporary college students need to know and be able to do--in…

This is no ordinary recession. And, for leaders in higher education, its impact will resonate long after it has passed. In the years ahead, the author believes that the past thirty years will be viewed as a kind of golden age of academic prosperity that was brought to a crashing end by this recession. Yet, the end of the golden age has also…

The Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) initiative of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) provides substance and direction to President Obama's American Graduation Initiative, which seeks to encourage more students to obtain baccalaureate degrees. The LEAP initiative defines the practical and aspirational goals…