Faculty Book: Andrew Hacker
Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus
Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—and What We Can Do About It
(Times Books, 2010)
The authors make an incisive case that the American way of higher education, now a $420 billion-per-year business, has lost sight of its primary mission: the education of young adults. Visiting colleges across the nation, they probe the true performance of the Ivy League, the baleful influence of tenure, an unhealthy reliance on part-time teachers, and the proliferation of essentially vocational training programs. They doubt this truly qualifies as higher education, defined as “a cultural journey, an intellectual expedition, a voyage confronting new ideas and information, together expanding and deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world.” But they also reveal those faculties and institutions that are getting it right and proving that teaching and learning can be achieved—and at a much more reasonable price than the $250,000 tab for four years at most top-tier universities. Andrew Hacker (Queens) is professor emeritus of political science at the Graduate Center.
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Submitted on: AUG 3, 2010
Category: Faculty Books, Political Science