Journal of Excellence in Higher Education

Quality Through Access, Access with Quality:
The New Imperative for Higher Education

Book review

According to Alan Mandell and Xenia Coulter from SUNY Empire State College, education was an integral part of the movement for social change in the 1960s and early 1970s. At every level of schooling, critical reflection on how subjects were taught, how students learn, and the social context in which all education occurs, deeply engaged the attention of the Academy. These thoughts stimulated educational experiments for a growing body of adult learners. New curricula were tried out; new programs within existing schools were developed; new collaborations among institutions were explored; and a number of new institutions were created (such as the University of Phoenix) from the ground up.

Now, many years later, some of the ideals that animated this important movement are still relevant However, a great number of external pressures--economic realities, globalization, the explosion of information, and the overall homogenization of culture—have either destroyed or re-formed many of these initiatives for change. Within some institutions, other pressures--new faculty with different priorities, workload worries about professional identity, external suspicions about academic credibility, and the routinization of what was once novel—also threaten the vibrancy of those ideals.

Amazon.Com addresses the issue as follows: " In his book, Quality Through Access, Access With Quality : The New Imperative for Higher Education William H. Bergquist draws on thirty years of experience in both traditional and nontraditional colleges and universities to take a provocative look at the often tense interplay between the objectives of quality and access in American higher education. Quality without access, Bergquist argues, is untenable in light of today's diverse student populations, just as access without quality is sham education.

Bergquist begins by showing how traditional definitions of quality, which tend to reflect the world of four-year residential colleges and universities, fail to embrace the realities of today's commuter students, returning adults, and multicultural populations." Such problems and concerns—though they may take different forms—are undoubtedly common to many, if not all nontraditional colleges. Indeed, these issues will always permeate educational institutions that attempt to stand against or apart from the methods and assumptions of traditional education. Learning about how we address these challenges, only infrequently acknowledged as major issues for nontraditional institutions, is one of the goals of this conversation. From this discussion might emerge broad principles and common practices that can be helpful to all of us. In this way, we may broaden the meaning of quality and access, particularly as it relates to the missions of adult nontraditional degree programs.

Table of contents

1. Higher Education in the Postmodern Environment

2. Challenges to Contemporary Colleges and Universities

3. Redefining Quality in the Context of Access

4. Myths and Concerns About Integrating Quality and Access

5. The Elitist Perspective

6. The Populist Perspective

7. The Beleaguered Perspective

8. The Expedient Perspective

9. Strategies Based on Creativity, Commitment, and Cooperation

10. Institutional Approaches to Managing Quality and Access

11. Critical Roles for Campus Leaders

William H. Bergquist Hardcover - 308 pages 1 Ed edition (April 1995)
Jossey-Bass Publishers; ISBN: 0787900710

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