Education for a lifetime: Preserving and strengthening higher education

As part of the Education for a Lifetime Initiative of Virginia’s Governor Mark Warner he is calling for renewed focus in higher education for the 21st century. While his reflections focus on public education the initiative presents a state perspective which invariably will impact private education in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Regardless, according to the governor private higher education plays an explicit role in this process.

Virginia’s strong higher education system has and continues to a public asset by producing a well-educated citizenry, enriches civic life and contributes to understanding of history, science and the arts. Furthermore, higher education benefits the Commonwealth by stimulating research, development and innovation and produces graduates who possess real earning power. Both of these entities are critical in the new economy and education is the predicator of quality of life and health of communities.

The Governor’s Higher Education Initiative seeks to yield an additional 10,000 degrees from associate degree to doctorates by 2010 through creating capacity to accommodate the 61,000 students seeking places this decade in public colleges and universities; providing up-to-date and maintained classrooms and laboratories; maintaining student financial aid; expanding high-demand academic programs such as teaching and health professions; reaching out to underserved student populations; and encouraging more use of distance learning. Alongside the role of public colleges and university private colleges are to help meet the anticipated increased enrollment demands.

Research and development are the other keys to prosperity in the new economy from creating new skills and jobs in high-tech start-up businesses to curing diseases. New technologies and new development depends on new basic knowledge which comes from having the resources to ask and pursuing and investigating the right questions. The Governor’s Initiative aims to increase Virginia’s research and development expenditures to $1 billion by 2010.

Finally, the Initiative seek to ensure greater accountability within higher education. The strategy to ensure this success will be to conduct an independent “public audit” to identify policies and procedures that need improvement, to support efforts to improve quality in the area of student retention so that students will not only enroll but progress in the educational path, and eliminate regulations and constraints that increase educational costs without quality and effectiveness as well.

Complete Text