Higher Education in America (It's Worse than You Think)

Higher education is in crisis. To capture the full scope of the problem, The Heritage Foundation assembled college presidents, professors, and researchers from across the country to contribute their unique perspectives about the problems plaguing higher education and to offer solutions.

Higher Education in America divides the challenges facing colleges and universities into three categories: economic, bureaucratic, and ideological. In the economic section, Preston Cooper, Kyle Washut, Andrew Gillen, and others discuss inflated college tuition expenses and the declining quality of education, the accreditation bottleneck, and more. George Harne, John Sailer, and Jonathan Butcher tackle the bureaucracy problem, drawing attention to DEI offices, a lack of vision among college leaders, and the ways in which alumnae can exert control over their alma maters. Carol Swain, Mark Bauerlein, Kenneth Marcus, and others describe how the Leftist capture of universities results in students being exposed to far fewer ideas—and the ideas to which they are exposed steering them away from the pursuit of truth and toward militant progressivism, anti-Western radicalism, and despair.

The fourth section of this collection provides hope and solutions. Jay Greene, Kevin Roberts, Christopher Rufo, and others call on universities to demand excellence, recultivate a sense of purpose in the classroom, and reject ideological conformity. As Rufo writes in his conclusion, “The rot is comprehensive, but the remedies are powerful and identifiable.”

This collection makes an essential statement about the need for change in higher education and contains a set of detailed, innovative ideas to help reclaim the American university.