Honoring the Trust: Quality and Cost Containment in Higher Education
William Massy’s long-awaited analysis of higher education bears out his reputation as an international expert in the field. In his own words, “This book is no jeremiad. Instead of simply listing higher education’s flaws, it presents a practical program for improvement – what faculty, institutional leaders, trustees, and oversight bodies can do now to improve the quality of education without spending more or abandoning other priorities. The diagnosis could have been written five or ten years ago, but it took until now to identify and try out the interventions.”Honoring the Trustachieves three major goals: 1) to describe and document the problems facing today’s colleges and universities, 2) to offer a vision of what the solutions to these problems will look like, and 3) to provide practical guidance for those who would be change agents or drivers or change.Readers ranging from seasonal academic leaders and practitioners to concerned citizens outside of the academy will understand and learn from the information and ideas that Massy presents in readable, engaging prose.Contents include:The erosion of trustUniversities as economic enterprisesSubsides and contribution marginsResearch, teaching, and the quality of educationTechnology’s misunderstood potentialEducation quality processesCore quality principlesEducation quality oversightBalancing cost and qualityPerformance-based resource allocationThe action agenda