Focusing on critical issues facing graduate education, these papers presented at a conference sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) examine areas such as declining enrollments, job shortage among college teachers, and the role of graduate schools in relation to the various intellectual disciplines. The overview paper, Graduate Education: A Case for the Public Interest (Joseph Duffey) outlines the necessity for public funding and support of higher education and the NEH commitment to academic life. Part I (The Aims of Graduate Education) contains the following papers: The College, the University, and Society (Maurice Mandelbaum); The Philosophy of Graduate Education (John Passmore); Graduate Education in the Humanities: Reflections and Proposals (Gregory Vlastos); Reflections on the Graduate School (Anthony Quinton); The Antinomies of Higher Education (Sterling M. McMurrin); and Past, Present, and Future in Graduate Education (Eugen Pusic). Part II (The Prospects of Graduate Education) contains: Graduate Education as Ritual and Substance (Kenneth E. Boulding); The Disciplinary and the Professional in Graduate School Education in the Social Sciences (Nathan Glazer); Graduate School in an Age of Stasis (Laurence Veysey); Institutional Policy Setting: A Dynamic View (William F. Miller); Future Social Needs and Demands for Highly Educated People (Howard R. Bowen); and The Philosophy and Future of Graduate Education: A Summary (Walter H. Clark, Jr.). (LC)