Goals for Higher Education

T HE literature on what's wrong with higher education in this country is mounting by leaps and bounds. Even a partial bibliography of monographs and articles which have appeared during the last few years would run to many pages. It is only natural that as participation in higher education goes beyond a chosen few, we should reconsider what the object of advanced training should be. Most of the pleas for a changed emphasis in higher education fall into certain general categories: criticisms of the waste of human resources-those who could profit by education but are unable for financial reasons to attend, and those who do attend but are incapable of absorbing the training. There are criticisms of discrimination against certain groups and criticisms of the educational process itself. Although the quantitative factor is foremost in the consideration of future changes which are likely to affect higher education, it is to be expected that other significant changes will also take place. This is as inevitable in the field of education as it is for biological phenomena. Changes in the nature of the subject-matter to be studied, however, will produce less drastic adjustments in the college program than those necessary to meet the increased enrollments. The principal problem which the colleges of the country will face in the future would seem to be increased enrollments. The avalanche which descended upon them with the return of veterans following the Second World War set enrollment records far above those existing previously, but even these records are expected to be surpassed in the not too distant future. There are now approximately 4,000,000 graduates in our population of nearly i5o,ooo,ooo-less than 3 per cent of the total population. Most of them who are gainfully employed belong to what are commonly referred to as the professional, proprietorship, executive, and managerial groups.' Sample studies of the income of college graduates as compared with the income of those who did not attend college indicates that the college graduates engaged in business pursuits tend to be in the executive and proprietorship classes. It has been estimated that if we reach the forecast level of enrollment-4,500,ooo within ten or fifteen years-there will be i S,ooo,ooo college graduates in our population. Even with an expanded population this will represent 8 or 9 per cent of the total as compared with the present 3 per

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• A Conceptual Model of Nontraditional Undergraduate Student Attrition

  Open Access•John P Bean, Barbara S Metzner•Review of Educational Research•1985

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