Surveys the changing landscape of American higher education, from academic freedom to virtual universities, from campus crime to Pell Grants, from the Student Privacy Act to student diversity.

In the years following World War II, college and university enrollment doubled, students revolted, faculty unionized, and community colleges evolved. Tuition and technology soared, as did the number of first-generation, minority, and women students. These changes radically transformed the American system of postsecondary education.



Today, that system is in trouble. Its aging professoriate prepares for retirement, but low academic salaries can no longer attract the best minds to replace them. A flood of corporate dollars funds commercial research, but money for basic research—the seedbed of American scientific preeminence—has dried up. Colleges and universities also face heated competition with for-profit education providers for students, faculty, and external financial support, along with the costs of providing remedial education to growing numbers of students who are unprepared for postsecondary education. Higher Education in the United States provides a comprehensive analysis of these issues and others that scholars and practitioners of higher education study, discuss, and grapple with on a daily basis.









More than 200 entries from more than 150 higher education scholars and experts around the country



An extensive bibliography to guide further study, including research studies and websites



An annotated chronology of important events in higher education from 1940 to the present



Detailed reviews of 42 important books on higher education, arranged chronologically