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Richard writes: < >> Martha, thanks for the information. What about the "hopeful about the future" part of these articles? What were they hopeful about, or should I look them up myself> Well, not really much except that high status, brand name colleges and universities will continue to do what they always have done and continue to attract students - because of their academic reputation or the kinds of people students will meet there, etc. Developmental Ed. will be downplayed- outsourced, placed in community colleges or extension departments, or offered through technology. On the other hand, there is a group pushing to return universities to teaching only liberal arts and sciences and divest them of professional schools - that doesn't make much sense to me as professional schools bring in much of their income. Last week I attended a local meeting where Margaret Miller, president of the American Association of Higher Ed spoke on:" The Big, Mean Market: What Higher Education Must Learn from the Alternative Providers." She described that regardless of how much higher education is resistant to change, it can ultimately be moved by the market and that the alternate providers offer a challenge to higher education that will soon have to be answered. (NOTE: Translate "challenge" into "big threat") The expansion of for-profits like the U. of Phoenix and the explosion of enrollment in distance /distributed learning should change the academy. I asked about how access would change but they weren't interested in that. What they are concerned about is how making higher education more market-oriented will change liberal arts and diminish departments like comparative literature that are not very popular with students. Also they are concerned about maintaining a required core of liberal arts and sciences courses in institutions that are attempting to keep up with the marketplace and offer only courses that are maximally relevant to everybody. But even the for-profits have concerns- the Open-University fears India, the U. Phoenix is concerned about competition from IBM. Martha Maxwell [log in to unmask]