Education for the 21st Century.

Overview & Synopsis

Ways that higher education can best contribute to the quality of life in the twenty-first century are discussed. While higher education is coping with an anticipated lowered demand for traditional services, new educational functions are being assumed by corporations, professional associations, and other noncollegiate providers. Industries provide continuing education for employees because they cannot find viable providers through academic sources. Colleges should be addressing whether and to what extent they wish to serve the industrial sector. Colleges need to question their role (e.g., human development, intellectual growth, academic achievement, career development) and what population is served (e.g., age groups, employers). Industry seems to have adopted the broadest possible goal for their education and training divisions: the development of human resources. The future will require a skilled, adaptable, and innovative labor force and a more flexible, less hierarchical organization of work. Higher education needs to prepare students for active and continuous involvement in their own lifelong education. Students need cognitive skills, motivation, and self-direction. Implications of the current information explosion and skills employers seek in graduates are also considered. (SW)