Conclusion: Critical Issues and the Public Good

Abstract

Judith Ramaley (2006), president of Winona State University in Minnesota and former assistant director of the Education and Human Resources Directorate at the National Science Foundation, states that the primary purposes of higher education today are

to conduct research on important problems, ideas, and questions; to promote the application of current knowledge to societal problems; and to prepare students to address these issues through a curriculum that emphasizes scholarly work in both the liberal arts and the professions, where learning is advanced in a mode that encourages civic commitments and social responsibility. (p. 173)