Innovator Vol. 37 No. 1 - Fall 06: Legacy of Leadership
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Although anyone who works in a university
or college works in higher education,
here in the School of Education we study it.
We seek to understand and develop solutions
to problems of higher education, across
this country and elsewhere in the world.
We examine trends in student enrollments,
experiences, and outcomes, and we ask how
different programs and policies affect the
quality of postsecondary education and the
institutions that house them. Among the
issues on which we focus are the success
of minority students, rising costs and their
effect on institutions, faculty, and students,
and the ethical imperatives of public higher
education. We identify programs and approaches
that make a difference.
There is no better place to study and work on these problems than here at the University of Michigan. Because we are one of the finest public research universities in the world, this campus provides a remarkable laboratory in which to investigate, innovate, and seek to solve critical problems of higher education. This can be done in settings right here on our own campus – in the mathematics department, in engineering, in the residence halls. Moreover, the University of Michigan is devoted not only to education in the core humanities and the social and scientific disciplines, but also in professional education. Here we are able to study and compare how different professions train first-rate practitioners.
Quite appropriately, you can see why the University of Michigan is the place where formal study of higher education was born. This year we proudly celebrate 50 years of the formal study of higher education here at Michigan.
In 1957, the School of Education received one of three grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to establish a Center for the Study of Higher Education. As you will read in this issue, the early emphasis was on training administrators to manage the rapidly expanding colleges and universities of the postwar era. Two decades later that growth had reached its peak and the Center’s emphasis shifted to the scholarly study of higher education. Today the Center’s faculty lead the way in research on major societal factors that affect postsecondary education around the world. We on campus have already begun honoring the Center’s 50th birthday, but in January 2007 the official public observance begins. We invite you to join us in celebrating A Legacy of Leadership; A Commitment to Excellence.
