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" What we are doing in educating students is trying to prepare them to live more fulfilling lives for the decades after they graduate. And trying to provide a better, richer, fairer, more decent society for the generations after. "

Derek Bok

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Most high governmental officials who speak of education policy seem to conceive of education in this light - as a way to ensure economic competitiveness and continued economic growth. I strongly disagree with this approach. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" I don't regard the fact that there's a disparity in test scores nearly as importantly as I do the need for diversity, because I know from long experience that test scores, though useful, are a very limited measure of things that matter in choosing students. "

" The first country to adopt happiness as an official goal of public policy is the tiny little country of Bhutan in Asia near China and India. "

" I suspect that no community will become humane and caring by restricting what its members can say. "

" I think one thing that does cause unhappiness is protracted anxiety and worry. "

" 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. "

" Despite the hours spent debating different models of general education, the choices faculties make rarely lead to any significant difference in the cognitive development of undergraduates. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" The most obvious purpose of college education is to help students acquire information and knowledge by acquainting them with facts, theories, generalizations, principles, and the like. This purpose scarcely requires justification. "

" The oldest of the arts and the youngest of the professions. "

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

" Once you start worrying about a national football championship, then you begin to worry about getting the quality of athlete, and the numbers needed, to win a national championship. And that worry leads to pressure to compromise academic standards to admit those athletes. "

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Good teaching is creating really interesting generalizations out of war stories. "

" What college is all about is some kind of 4-year game about who is going to end up with the highest grades. And I don't mean to say that academic achievement isn't important. But it is, after all, a means to an end. "