Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
I The Challenge
1 Graduation Rates and Educational Attainment 7
2 The Quality of Education 21
II Sources Of Influence
3 Can Colleges Meet the Challenges by Themselves? 43
4 The Influence of Students 59
5 Employers 68
6 Competition, Old and New 81
7 The Major Foundations 97
8 The Role of Government in Raising Levels of Educational Attainment 109
9 Government Efforts to Improve the Quality of Education 124
10 Accreditation 136
III The Way Forward
11 Increasing Educational Attainment 157
12 Improving the Quality of Education 169
13 Encouraging Reform 183
Notes 203
Index 223

Why efforts to improve American higher educational attainment haven't worked, and where to go from here
During the first decade of this century, many commentators predicted that American higher education was about to undergo major changes that would be brought about under the stimulus of online learning and other technological advances. Toward the end of the decade, the president of the United States declared that America would regain its historic lead in the education of its workforce within the next ten years through a huge increase in the number of students earning "quality" college degrees.
Several years have elapsed since these pronouncements were made, yet the rate of progress has increased very little, if at all, in the number of college graduates or the nature and quality of the education they receive. In The Struggle to Reform Our Colleges, Derek Bok seeks to explain why so little change has occurred by analyzing the response of America's colleges; the influence of students, employers, foundations, accrediting organizations, and government officials; and the impact of market forces and technological innovation. In the last part of the book, Bok identifies a number of initiatives that could improve the performance of colleges and universities. The final chapter examines the process of change itself and describes the strategy best calculated to quicken the pace of reform and enable colleges to meet the challenges that confront them.

Derek Bok is the 300th Anniversary University Research Professor, professor of law, and president emeritus of Harvard University. His many books include Higher Education in America, Our Underachieving Colleges, and Universities in the Marketplace (all Princeton).