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" The vast majority of students probably emerge from college with an adequate grasp of no more than a single method of inquiry. Even this capacity may erode over time if it does not relate to experiences and problems that recur in the student's later life. "

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" Although professors regard improving critical thinking as the most important goal of college, tests reveal that seniors who began their studies with average critical thinking skills have progressed only from the 50th percentile of entering freshmen to about the 69th percentile. "

Derek Bok

Goal

Important

College

" For some students, especially in the sciences, the knowledge gained in college may be directly relevant to graduate study. For almost all students, a liberal arts education works in subtle ways to create a web of knowledge that will illumine problems and enlighten judgment on innumerable occasions in later life. "

" Fewer than half of all university professors publish as much as one article per year. "

" Critics of American colleges typically attribute the failings of undergraduate education to a tendency on the part of professors to neglect their teaching to concentrate on research. In fact, the evidence does not support this thesis, except perhaps in major research universities. "

" Greater inequality in Europe has made people less happy. "

" Apart from finding a first job, college graduates seem to adapt more easily than those with only a high school degree as the economy evolves and labor-market needs change. "

" Economists who have studied the relationship between education and economic growth confirm what common sense suggests: The number of college degrees is not nearly as important as how well students develop cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving ability. "

" Teaching methods are often inadequate for the goals faculties are trying to achieve. Important courses such as expository writing and foreign languages are frequently taught by untrained graduate students and underpaid adjunct teachers. "

" Universities are in a position where they can think very creatively. "

" As countries embrace mass higher education, the cost of maintaining universities increases dramatically relative to an elite system. "

" Again and again, universities have put a low priority on the very programs and initiatives that are needed most to increase productivity and competitiveness, improve the quality of government, and overcome the problems of illiteracy, miseducation, and unemployment. "

" The University has a moral obligation to provide equal opportunities to women, minority persons and all other groups who work or seek to work at Harvard. "

" I think any self-respecting educational institution ought to judge its policies by its best estimate of what their long-term consequences for their students and for the society will be. "

" I won't say there aren't any Harvard graduates who have never asserted a superior attitude. But they have done so to our great embarrassment and in no way represent the Harvard I know. "

" Freshly minted Ph.Ds typically teach the way their favorite professors taught. "

" There is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot. "

" If we are prepared to invest the necessary time and effort, affirmative action can contribute to Harvard's quality and not detract from it. "

" Doctoral training is devoted almost entirely to learning to do research, even though most Ph.Ds who enter academic life spend far more time teaching than they do conducting experiments or writing books. "

" There's a great deal of difference between thinking reflectively about moral issues and achieving higher standards of ethical behavior. "

" I think the minority students that we admit to Harvard are every bit as meritorious as the white students that we admit. "

" Education, and I regret to say this as an educator, but there's no indication that education has a direct effect on happiness. "

" In 1968, the situation at Harvard was not one of which we can be proud. In that year, the proportion of minority persons in salary and wage positions was approximately 3 per cent. Virtually no minority workers were employed on Harvard construction projects. "

" Early admission programs tend to advantage the advantaged. "

" Efforts to develop critical thinking falter in practice because too many professors still lecture to passive audiences instead of challenging students to apply what they have learned to new questions. "

" Colleges and universities, for all the benefits they bring, accomplish far less for their students than they should. Many students graduate without being able to write well enough to satisfy their employers... reason clearly or perform competently in analyzing complex, non-technical problems. "

" I think it's sort of an outrage that companies should have to hire firms to teach the college graduates they employ how to write. "

" Colleges do not merely offer preparation for the future; they occupy four years of a student's life, and an institution should do what it can to make these years absorbing and enjoyable. "

" Ever since economists revealed how much universities contribute to economic growth, politicians have paid close attention to higher education. "

" I think it's very important to emphasize that there are many, many different educational institutions in what we call higher education, and they educate an enormous diversity of students. I think all of those institutions have to define particular roles for themselves; they can't do everything at once. "

" I don't think the alternative to Yale is jail by any means. On the other hand, there is a mass of research that does show that there are real advantages to your subsequent career in going to selective institutions. "