On June 26, Doug Lederman, founder of Inside Higher Education, spoke on the Spellings Commission, also known as The Commission on the Future of Higher Education. The 19 member Commission was charged with recommending a national strategy for reforming post-secondary education. It focused on how well colleges and universities have been preparing students for the 21st century workplace, as well as a secondary focus on how well high schools are preparing the students for post-secondary education.
The Spellings Commission states that higher education in the US has become one of our greatest success stories, but recently foreign higher education systems are passing us by. Although this country has led the world in percentage of college graduates and attendees in the past, our place is slipping. We are now 7th in the percentage of students attending, 16th in the percentage of those who finish a program, and 25th in literacy proficiency among college graduates. It recommended a greater focus on financial aid, the development of accountability standards for university performance, and higher investment in research.
