College Programs of Self-Examination

T HE development of continuing programs of self-examination in many colleges evinces substantial concern toward doing a better educational job. Colleges generally seem to have healthful discontent with many of their activities. A bare list of the factors which contribute to such discontent includes changing social conditions; varying enrollment, actual and prospective; conflicting educational philosophies; the accumulation of research evidence regarding human growth and development; and the persistent criticism of education. A few years ago surveys of colleges by outside surveyors marked the beginning of an era of intensified, general interest in improving undergraduate education. The emphasis shifted to institutional self-study; colleges began their own selfexamination and banded themselves in co-operative groups to study their problems. Currently the American Council on Education is sponsoring two such studies, the Cooperative Study in General Education and the investigation of the Commission on Teacher Education. The North Central and the Southern Associations of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the American Association of Junior Colleges, and various other groups are facilitating the co-operation of colleges in self-examination. Also symptomatic of new interests and insights into problems of undergraduate education are the large and increasing numbers of yearbooks, monographs, and magazine articles. The announcements of new plans, of new courses, and reorganizations add evidence that colleges have a substantial concern with self-improvement. The significance of continuous self-examination lies in the questions

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