Education and business have taken their knocks in the past decade. Listening to the customer has changed the way America does business. Education establishments need to look at their “products” and the reactions to those products by their customers. This manuscript lays out one piece of the challenge: the relationship of higher education to productivity in America.
Higher education directly affects business competitiveness. How well or how poorly the professors of higher learning do their job greatly affects the success of our economy in the global market. This Mackinac Center for Public Policy study recommends some steps that would energize and strengthen our collegiate curricula.
Today, too many smart students are receiving a watered-down higher education. Colleges and universities need to re-evaluate their course offerings, do away with classes based on frivolous theory, and discard curricula that have no relationship to the challenges of the real world.
Dr. Tom Bertonneau presents well-reasoned recommendations that would lead to an intellectually sound collegiate undergraduate curriculum. American colleges and universities need to launch a renaissance in higher education. There are essential things we must all know and believe, or we do not have a common culture.
My hope is that this study will provide impetus for a major rebuilding of social responsibility within our colleges and universities.
Robert A. Lutz
President and Chief Operating Officer
Chrysler Corporation
Auburn Hills, Michigan
October 1996