About the Center for Excellence in Higher Education
The Center for Excellence in Higher Education (CEHE) was established by a small group of philanthropists who have donated millions of dollars to U.S. colleges and universities and are concerned about higher education's continuing decline. Our purpose is to educate the public about the state of higher education in America and help donors promote excellence in higher education through philanthropy.
Though America's top colleges and universities are among the best in the world, the majority of America's nearly 2,500 four-year colleges and universities are struggling to keep up. According to the Times of London, seven of the top 10 universities in the world are located in the United States, with Harvard ranked number one. After that, our competitiveness drops rapidly, with less than half of the top 25 schools located in the United States and just 35 of the top 100. With three out of every seven universities in the world here in America, the United States is clearly underrepresented at the top.
Various supporting data confirm higher education's problems. For example: A study by the American Research Institutes, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, found that only 38 percent of all students at four-year colleges and universities were proficient in reading and understanding such things as newspaper editorials, just 40 percent were proficient in completing documents such as job applications, and only 35 percent were proficient in quantitative tasks such as balancing a checkbook or understanding the terms of a car loan described in a newspaper ad.
The source of this problem is not money. Annual expenditures on U.S. higher education exceed $300 billion. Taxpayers provide a substantial portion of these funds. Alumni and other donors provide another substantial portion - more than $28 billion a year. The question many are asking is: Are we getting our money's worth?
The Center for Excellence in Higher Education believes the answer is "no." Through effective philanthropy, due diligence, proper governance, and management accountability, however, America's colleges and universities can be transformed into high-performing institutions that prepare today's students to be tomorrow's leaders.
Identifying the Problem
Many individuals and institutions in America are concerned about the future of higher education.
And there is continuing talk of reform. But much of this talk focuses on various symptoms of the problem - such as high school graduates who are ill prepared for rigorous college work; the trivialization and politicization of courses and curricula; skyrocketing costs; and more emphasis on athletics than on academics - while failing to confront the core causes of decline:
- the fact that most college and university trustees fail to provide serious and judicious oversight of the institutions on whose Boards they serve;
- the fact that most college administrators are responsible principally for revenue and physical plant, not productivity or results; and
- the fact that college faculty have been ceded control over personnel matters, course and curricula decisions, and, in some cases, spending policies.
Supporting data also confirm this. A study by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, for example, found that nine out of 10 college trustees had no say regarding academic program requirements or faculty work loads, 53 percent weren't involved in "establishing faculty compensation policies," 22 percent were not responsible for appointing the university's president, and 34 percent did not evaluate the president's performance.
College and university trustees and administrators have a responsibility to see that the institutions they oversee focus on their mission - education; use available resources wisely and efficiently in pursuit of that mission; challenge faculty and students to aim high; and assure alumni, parents, students, and donors that the granting of a degree means the recipient has accomplished something significant and is ready to contribute to society in a learned and meaningful way.
Transforming Higher Education
There is no reason why college and university presidents and trustees - and the taxpayers, parents, alumni and philanthropists who support their institutions - should not have an important say in what we understand higher education to mean. In an increasingly competitive world, the costs to our country are too great not to involve the entire range of stakeholders in defining what constitutes a meaningful college education and the standards for graduation.
The Center for Excellence in Higher Education is convinced that any serious effort to transform higher education must come from the outside. It won't happen from within.
Our programs help meet this challenge by focusing on the following:
Accountability: America cannot achieve what it seeks and requires from higher education - colleges and universities that routinely produce quality graduates at a fair cost - without the full participation of college and university administrators. The Center for Excellence in Higher Education believes college and university trustees must provide the presidents and chancellors of America's colleges and universities with significantly more management responsibility and flexibility. They should receive full credit for the successes of their institutions and take responsibility and be held accountable for their failings. If they are little more than titled fundraisers and property managers, as is regrettably the case at many schools, higher education will continue its damaging decline.
Governance: College and university trustees have a moral and fiduciary responsibility to properly govern the institutions they serve. The Center for Excellence in Higher Education believes these trustees must be given appropriate authority and must understand and exercise that authority. The common belief among many trustees that the institution they serve is infallible has had a profound and negative impact on higher education quality.
Effective Giving: Americans donate more than $28 billion a year to U.S. colleges and universities, according to the Giving USA Foundation, often with no particular purpose in mind other than to give. The Center for Excellence in Higher Education helps serious donors and prospective donors structure gifts to achieve specific goals and obtain the best possible outcomes for their higher education investments. We work with donors to develop and finance new academic programs, assist them in making grants to non-profit organizations involved in higher education reform, and help them increase transparency and accountability in both higher education and higher education philanthropy.
Oversight:Effective giving is only part of the process. The Center for Excellence in Higher Education also helps donors monitor the use of their gifts and evaluate the results achieved. An all too common practice is for colleges and universities to accept - and even solicit - donations for one purpose and use the money for something else. Such inappropriate practices, condemned by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and other reputable organizations, must end. The Center for Excellence in Higher Education helps provide the necessary oversight.
Awareness: Change may not happen until students, parents, alumni, philanthropists, concerned citizens and business, media and community leaders insist on change. But they won't insist on change until they fully realize the degree to which higher education has been corroded in recent decades. The Center for Excellence in Higher Education supports and conducts research, data analysis and public information activities that provide needed and oft-ignored information on higher education's performance - and decline. We let the facts speak for themselves.
The problems in higher education will not be solved by tinkering at the edges. The Center for Excellence in Higher Education is committed to helping donors, alumni, trustees, elected officials, and college administrators pursue meaningful structural reforms. Excellence is not a buzzword - it is the key to America's future.
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