In Hunt for Prestige, Colleges May Undermine Their Public Mission - Government - The Ch... - 1 views
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many large research universities are placing too much priority on activities that raise the profile and prestige of their institutions but do little to improve undergraduate education.
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"In some of these places, undergraduate education has never been a top priority," says Jane V. Wellman, executive director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity, and Accountability.
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While its grants and gifts have gone up, the percentage of money it spends on core teaching and student services has gone down. Many students, of course, benefit from the private support and research dollars, as the university has built better facilities and attracted world-class faculty members.
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But the research aspirations of many large universities are in conflict with their founding principles, Ms. Wellman says, especially as undergraduate admissions has become more selective
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another result of the chase for research dollars is that measures for faculty assessment and promotion rely too heavily on the research output and publication and too little on the quality of classroom teaching.
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"I'm not pushing for banning research," he says, but there should be more flexibility and balance in the criteria."