Project

Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education

Education
Back to projects
students around a table

Drawing from national leaders in education, business, and government, this Academy commission analyzed the current state of undergraduate education and offers recommendations to improve the quality of student learning, increase college completion rates, and ensure all students have access to an affordable postsecondary education.

Overview

Our nation’s effort over two centuries to provide education to everyone who lives and works within the United States is an expression of a core belief, one that has survived a long history of challenges: that all people, through learning, can achieve higher goals for themselves and for society as a whole.

Progress toward universal education has expanded most recently to colleges and universities. Today, almost 90 percent of high school graduates can expect to enroll in an undergraduate institution at some point during young adulthood and they are joined by millions of adults seeking to improve their lives. What was once a challenge of quantity in American undergraduate education, of enrolling as many students as possible, is now a challenge of quality—of making sure that all students receive the rigorous education they need to succeed, that they are able to complete the studies they begin, and that they can do this affordably, without mortgaging the very future they seek to improve.

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences formed the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education to develop a national strategy to help students and their families, colleges and universities, government policy-makers, and business leaders and philanthropists reach this next level. The future success of our democracy, our economy, and our nation will depend on our commitment to an inclusive ideal of an educated society.

Learn more about the priorities outlined by the Commission in its final report, The Future of Undergraduate Education, The Future of America:

View videos featuring innovative, successful, and replicable approaches to each of the Commission’s three national priorities.

People

People

Cochairs
Commission Members

John Seely Brown

University of Southern California
Independent Co-Chairman, Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation
Academy Member

Jonathan Fanton

American Academy of Arts and Sciences
President
Academy Member

Robert Hormats

Kissinger Associates; formerly, United States Department of State

Sherry Lee Lansing

Sherry Lansing Foundation
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Academy Member

Nicholas B. Lemann

Columbia Journalism School
Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism; Dean Emeritus
Academy Member

Shirley M. Tilghman

Princeton University
President Emerita and Professor of Biology and Public Affairs
Academy Member
Data Advisory Group
Show More People Show Less
Publications

Publications

Show More Publications
Research Paper |
MAR 2017

Undergraduate Financial Aid in the United States

To inform discussions of the future of undergraduate education in the United States, and the role of financial aid within it, this paper provides an overview of undergraduate financial aid—its motivations, its moving parts, and its controversies.
Author Judith Scott-Clayton
Education
Research Paper |
SEP 2016

A Primer on the College Student Journey

Serving as a foundation for the Commission’s ongoing work, this brief volume focuses on the pathways students of various backgrounds follow through the abundance of higher education options ostensibly available to them.
Project
Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education
Education
Show Less
News & Updates

News & Updates
In the News
|

Roger Ferguson reflects on the educational promise of tomorrow

Roger Ferguson, cochair of the Academy’s Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, addresses how recent crises have exacerbated enduring challenges in higher education and how we collectively address those headwinds will shape outcomes for generations to come.
Source
Inside Higher Ed
Can higher education save itself? / Branche Coverdale for The Chronicle
In the News
|

Can Higher Ed Save Itself?

Business as usual won’t solve the existential challenges facing higher education. Gabriel Paquette discusses three models for reinventing higher ed: the laissez-faire, the pragmatic, and the utopian, citing the American Academy report on “The Future of Undergraduate Education, The Future of America” in this opinion piece.
Source
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Bulletin
|

Improving Teaching: Strengthening the College Learning Experience

What do students learn in college? When do professors learn how to teach? How can we ensure students are truly being educated for the future? The answers to these questions are determined in part by the quality of instruction students receive, yet public policy discussions about higher education rarely focus on teaching. Michael S. McPherson and Sandy Baum explored the importance of improving teaching and strengthening the college learning experience in the Fall 2019 issue of Dædalus.
Show More News & Updates
Students discuss bioluminescence at a makerspace
In the News
|

The Imperative to Improve College Learning

Affordability and credential attainment are important goals. But the big question for higher education now, some of the enterprise's best minds say, is "completion of what?" Inside Higher Ed explores the Daedalus volume on Improving Teaching.
Source
Inside Higher Ed
Martha Minow and John Palfrey discuss the intersection between a growing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and the tradition of free expression on school campuses.
Bulletin
|

Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces: Diversity and Free Expression in Education

On May 7, 2019, John Palfrey spoke about the intersection between a growing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and the tradition of free expression on school campuses. Martha Minow participated in a conversation with John Palfrey following his opening remarks.
In the News
|

Putting the college admissions scandal in context

Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson, members of the Academy's Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, write that the recent college admissions scandal represents a small fraction of college admissions and should not distract from persistent inequalities in higher education access.
Source
Brookings
In the News
|

The Future of Undergraduate Education

Commission cochair Michael S. McPherson and education program director Francesca B. Purcell provide an overview of work by the Academy’s Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, which offers a national strategy to improve the college student experience.
Source
International Higher Education
In the News
|

What Students Say Is Good Teaching

Citing Academy report, Harry Brighouse shares instructional practices that undergraduates say they have rarely encountered and think should be more widely shared.
Source
Inside Higher Ed
In the News
|

Unlocking the ‘Black Box’ of College Outcomes

Michelle Weise, member of the Academy's Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, explores the 'black box' of college outcomes facing education consumers.
Source
EdSurge
Bulletin
|

Priorities for Progress: Advancing Higher Education in America

On October 26, 2017, the American Academy hosted a conversation at the University of California, Berkeley, on "Priorities for Progress: Advancing Higher Education in America," which highlighted two Academy projects – The Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education and the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education.
In the News
|

A Call to Reform Undergraduate Education

Major study by American Academy of Arts and Sciences seeks change in curriculum and assessment, commitment to funding public higher education, new ideas about the faculty role, and more.
Source
Inside Higher Ed
In the News
|

As Higher Education Grows More Crucial, How Can It Be Improved?

The Chronicle interviewed Michael S. McPherson, cochair of the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, to hear about improving educational quality, raising completion rates, reducing inequality, and making college more affordable.
Source
The Chronicle of Higher Education
In the News
|

Yes, Financial Investment in College Completion Pays Off

In the latest publication from the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, a team of analysts from Moody's Analytics attempted to lay out the costs and benefits of a sustained investment program aimed at boosting program completion rates, especially for disadvantaged students.
Source
Campus Technology
In the News
|

A Highways Project for College Completion

A big boost to college completion would pay off for students and the economy, a new paper finds, but would substantially increase the federal deficit. Academy report cited in coverage.
Source
Inside Higher Ed
In the News
|

Are MOOCs, Bootcamps and Other Alternative Education Options Effective?

The House has passed one bill, and is likely to pass another, that would provide funding for people to enroll in certificate programs, apprenticeships, bootcamps and other technical education programs. But a new study from the American Academy questions the quality of these programs, as well as the evidence that demonstrates their efficacy.
Source
U.S. News & World Report
Bulletin
|

Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education

With generous support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education is conducting an analysis of American undergraduate education and looking ahead several decades at the educational challenges and opportunities facing Americans.
In the News
|

The State of Undergraduate Education

The Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education releases its first report, using data to lay out a broad picture of students at today's two- and four-year colleges.
Source
Inside Higher Ed
In the News
|

Most people want a college degree, but reaching that goal remains a challenge, report says

According to "A Primer on the College Student Journey," a report released Thursday by the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education: In addition to improving retention and graduation rates, colleges must address disparities in educational attainment associated with race and ethnicity, income level, and gender. And cost and debt remain concerns.
Source
Cleveland.com
Bulletin
|

Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education

Higher education continues to be one of the most important avenues of opportunity in American society. But the education landscape is changing rapidly: there are more options for how and when Americans receive some form of higher education.
Show Less
Events

Events

Show More Events
Feb 13, 2019

Book Launch: The Privileged Poor

Featuring David W. Oxtoby, Bridget Terry Long, Anthony Jack, and Danielle Allen
Cambridge, MA
Transcript Copy Created with Sketch.
Show Less
Outreach

Outreach

Outreach is focused on engaging federal and state policy makers, academic leaders, and funding organizations in a discussion of the Commission’s findings. The goal of these efforts is to advance a broad set of recommendations aimed at improving the quality of undergraduate education, increasing completion rates, and ensuring that college education is affordable.

Commission and Academy staff connected with influential audiences through conference presentations, board meetings, and briefings. For example:

  • Members of the Commission and Academy staff briefed federal policymakers in over 40 meetings with members of Congress or their staff and the U.S. Department of Education; testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; and presentations to federal advisory groups including the National Science Board and the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee to the Directorate for Education and Human Resources.
  • Commissioners connected with state policymakers and academic leaders in state-focused meetings in Kentucky, Wisconsin and Washington State.
  • The Commission’s work was presented to funding organizations including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Fish Family Foundation.
  • Members of the Commission delivered keynotes and presentations at nine national and regional conferences for higher education leaders.
  • And the Commission has participated in interviews and correspondence with media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, WGBH, WAMU, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed and The New York Times.

Learn more about the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education's influence:

Outreach Activities

Media Coverage

Project Information

Support for the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education was provided by a $2.2 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Project Date
-
Back to projects