Dr. Iris Stammberger, PMP

“Academically Adrift might be the most important book on higher education in a decade. Combined with students’ limited effort and great disparities in benefits among students, Arum and Roksa’s findings raise questions that should have been raised long ago about who profits from college and what colleges need to do if they are to benefit new groups of students. In this new era of college for all, their analysis refocuses our attention on higher education’s fundamental goals.” - James Rosenbaum, Northwestern University”

In an era where a  bachelor’s degree is now required for entry into a growing number of professions, we have failed to aske a fundamental question: are the students learning? A recent book, Academically Adrift, anwers this question by proposing that for a large number of students, the answer is no, at least during the first two years of college. Relying on extensive research and a standratized test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of the second year, they find that there is no significant change in a wide range of skills considered crucial for effective performance in the 21st century workplace. The authors argue that these are the expected results of a student body distracted by socializing or working and an institutional culture that gives more priority to research and graduate studies. The book claims that among the mounting challenges facing higher education today, the biggest challenge one is the failing of learning in their undergraduate population.