Recently, a chasm has developed between current faculty expertise and its potential applications for societal benefit and the restrictive academic boundaries within which our faculty and staff must perform. Yet, potential changes in academia could help colleges and universities meet the highest expectations of a currently skeptical public.
The need for academic reform has been evident in recent curricular changes. In many universities, traditional department- based curricula have been folded into more integrated approaches to learning. Such changes reflect the need to educate students using a different curricular organization.
In some cases, these changes in curriculum are indicative of the routes that universities can take to enhance relevance. For example, many institutions have developed cross-disciplinary core curricula that draw faculty from several departments to provide students with an integrated educational base. Such training can enhance the effectiveness of subsequent academic specialization that a student may pursue.
These courses also provide ...
