Becoming Great Universities: Small Steps for Sustained Excellence

Light (teaching and learning, Harvard. Univ.; Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds) and higher education strategist Jegla explore how academic cultures can be shaped to attract and retain students and help them flourish. They discuss the importance of creating a campus culture that thrives on improvement and innovation, assisting students’ transitions from high school to college, adjusting teaching approaches to focus on learning outcomes, using assessment (not standardized testing) to determine what students are learning, soliciting student opinions and putting those ideas into action, and fostering interaction between students with differing backgrounds and life experiences. The final chapter summarizes steps to improving the undergraduate student experience. The authors never fault students for being unprepared for college; rather, they place the onus on under-resourced high schools. The ideas are insightful, the writing is sound, and the work is chock-full of practical, low-cost or no-cost suggestions and tried-and-true practices from various U.S. colleges and universities.