Institutions of higher learning have long enjoyed a lot of freedom in determining and evaluating learning objectives and student performance. Even with the accreditation process, a voluntary review with an external agency meant to ensure certain minimum standards, colleges still differ in all kinds of ways.
But higher education has come under more and more scrutiny in recent years, with many policy makers arguing that colleges and universities should be setting higher, more uniform standards and doing more to prove that those standards are actually being met. Part of that proof could come from changes in the accreditation process, including a move toward some type of standardized benchmarks with quantitative measures that could be used to then compare peer institutions. For more, see a recent article in Inside Higher Ed.
I suppose there are all kinds of reasons to zero in on higher ed. In the age of No Child Left Behind, public education has already become a numbers game (though with very questionable results). Given the cost of tuition, and the fact that it continues to grow, I can understand wanting something concrete. The growth of for-profit colleges has certainly earned them a closer look as some questionable practices have come to light. Even for public institutions, it may be seen as a necessary measure of accountability. What exactly is a state school doing with the little it gets from the state? What are students really learning?
Still, it scares me. What kind of benchmarks would be appropriate? How would they be measured? Who would get to decide? I’m not suggesting there is no place for rigor in evaluations, but graphs and charts do not paint a complete picture of the learning process. I hope for the sake of learning that higher education is not reduced to a set of statistics. One of the great things about college is the opportunity to explore new things, engage in thought provoking discussions, meet different people, and grow as a person. How does one measure that?
Moreover, how does one measure the long-range impact of an education? Some of what we learn in college (in life for that matter) may not feel personally significant at the time, but that doesn’t mean it won’t feel that way later. Colleges are places where students learn habits that can make them lifelong learners and thinkers, regardless of occupation. It seems to be one of the few places left where intellectual activity is valued for the sake of it—and I think that’s something worth protecting.
