The Disappointments of Success: Higher Education after World War II

Abstract

From a historical perspective, Marvin Lazerson gives an account of the unprecedented growth of higher education in the years following World War II, its transformation from a public good to a private benefit that confers economic rewards, and the current problems that it faces during an era of retrenchment. He demonstrates how higher education's postwar success was built on three already established patterns and beliefs: vocationalism, public higher education, and multiple sectors of postsecondary schooling. He then discusses how the world of higher education changed after 1970, when critics began to voice concerns over unchecked expansion, and how its current problems emerged during the 1980s and 1990s, as the costs of attending college began to outpace the economic returns.

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