1. education

Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student
perspectives on the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor's degree in the 21st century
Roy Y. Chan*, Boston College
Gavin T. L. Brown, The University of Auckland
Larry H. Ludlow, Boston College
Society expects that degree-granting institutions will ensure that college students develop discipline-specific
competence as well as generic skills (e.g., communication, written, oral, tolerance, compassion) and
dispositions (e.g., attitudes, beliefs, curiosity) at the completion of a bachelor’s degree. Current research
suggests that undergraduate education is not just about discipline specific knowledge or cognitive skills;
instead, dispositions and cognitive skills that enable graduates to be effective citizens are also valued
outcomes for students completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Utilizing Critical Interpretive
Synthesis(CIS), this paper reviews and synthesizes the purposes and aims or goals of undergraduate
education from the perspective of (a) higher education institutions and (b) undergraduate students. More
specifically, this article aims to address two research questions: (a) What are the differences between
students’ and institutional overall aims, expectations, goals, outcomes, and purposes with regards to generic
skills and dispositional outcomes of a bachelor’s degree and (b) Is there a consensus as to what the goals of a
bachelor’s degree are in terms of generic skills or core competencies. To answer such questions, a
comprehensive search of the literature identified and selected 20 peer-reviewed articles, nine books, three
magazines/newspaper articles, and one policy brief published between 2000 and 2013 relevant to this topic.
Nine domains of the purposes and goals were found and while there was some agreement between
institutions and students, especially concerning advanced intellectual cognitive attainment, the review of the
literature was characterized by significant misalignment. Our research findings suggest that student
expectations for completing an undergraduate education tend to be very instrumental and personal, while
higher education institutional aims and purposes of undergraduate education tend towards highly ideal lifeand society-changing consequences. Those misalignments in purposes and goals are discussed and several
recommendations on their resolution are offered.
Keywords: purposes and goals of a bachelor’s degree; institutional research; student learning outcomes;
assessment and accountability in higher education; value of a college degree
Introduction
Over the last half-century, new pressures have challenged the traditional purpose of higher
education (AAC&U, 2012). On one hand, the purpose of colleges and universities tend to
reproduce what the larger society is expecting of them. On the other hand, one would also argue
that they should be aiming for more ideal contributions to the commonwealth society. That
conundrum has posed persistent dilemmas about the goals of higher education (DeVitis, 2013).
Notably, private, nonprofit colleges and universities worldwide face unprecedented
challenges on a wide number of issues including support for student aid, scrutiny over student
access and completion, and the value of a college degree. Generally, higher education exist to
create and disseminate knowledge, and to develop higher order cognitive and communicative
skills in young people, such as, the ability to think logically, the motivation to challenge the status
quo, and the capacity to develop sophisticated values. However, today’s society has also view
higher education as a training ground for advanced vocational and professional skills. This agenda
has often created tensions between higher education as a public good versus higher education as a
private benefit, where colleges and universities have become increasingly diverse and political
within which they are located (Bok, 2013; Delbanco, 2012; Hacker & Driefus, 2011). This has all
resulted to the increasing corporatization and managerialization of higher education processes,
which is often conceptualized as a contradiction to the traditional academic, scholarly goal of
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Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
contemplating important ideas (McArthur, 2011; Watty, 2006). As a result, colleges and
universities must not only develop students’ soft and hard skills but to also enhance their core
competencies and dispositions such as knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs for entry into the global
knowledge-based economy (Haigh & Clifford, 2011).
Today’s knowledge economy requires highly skilled personnel at all levels to deal with
rapid technological changes. To meet current societal needs, higher education institutions across
the world are striving to reconstruct curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment policies to ensure that
all students have the desired attributes and competencies at the completion of a bachelor’s degree
(Westerheijden, Stensaker, & Rosa, 2007). Despite current institutional moves toward skillsspecific and higher-level learning outcomes, such as, critical thinking, communication, and
problem solving (Keeling & Hersh, 2012), limited research have explored the primary goals and
purposes of higher education and to what extent college students develop skills and attributes
(e.g., tolerance, compassion) at the completion of a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century.
This knowledge gap stands in stark contrast to the large number of recent studies in which
has examined the significant “economic benefits” arising from completing a bachelor’s degree
(Avery & Turner, 2012; McArthur, 2011; Psacharapoulos & Patrinos, 2004). For instance,
Benson, Esteva, and Levy (2013) found that a bachelor’s degree program from California’s higher
education system still remains a good investment for individuals and society. Similarly, Delbanco
(2012) emphasized that a bachelor’s degree is both “good for the economic health of the nation
and that going to college is good for the economic competitiveness of society” (p. 25).
Nonetheless, given the well-established financial and career benefits of a bachelor’s degree
(Zaback, Carlson, & Crellin, 2012), it is plausible to suggest that a significant motivator for entry
into and completion of undergraduate education among parents and students is access to such
economic benefits. While not an inappropriate motivation, research that focus solely on the
economic instrumentality of higher education may not produce the best learning outcomes.
For instance, Arum and Roksa (2011) book in Academically Adrift claims that four years
of undergraduate education make little difference in students’ ability to synthesize knowledge and
put complex ideas in writing. They argued that 45 percent of students made no gains in their
writing, complex reasoning, or critical-thinking skills during their first two years of college and 36
percent failed to show any improvement over the four years of college (Liu, Bridgeman, & Adler,
2012). The authors of the book concluded that “drifting through college without a clear sense of
purpose is readily apparent for undergraduates” (p. 121). Similarly, past research into the learning
effects of motivation have also suggested that students with strongly instrumental motives (e.g.,
I’m doing this so I can make a lot of money) or who use ‘minimax’ strategies (i.e., getting the
greatest return for the least effort) tend not to achieve as well as those with ‘deep’ (e.g., learning
for its own sake) learning intentions (Entwistle & Peterson, 2004; Zimmerman, Bonner, &
Kovach, 1996). Despite the fact that many colleges and universities are beginning to assess a
broader range of instruments and approaches to document student learning progress (AAU, 2013),
limited information about how the data are used significantly lags behind in the worldwide
landscape of higher education today (Kuh et al., 2014). Nevertheless, examining and comparing
both institutional and student purposes for completing a bachelor’s degree may be relevant to
higher education policymakers and institutional researchers seeking to enhance student learning in
higher education.
Just as Watty’s (2006) study helped us appreciate the tension between how academics and
government policies view higher education, an analysis that compares and contrasts the goals and
purposes of higher education may help us better understand what matters in college during their
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Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
four critical years. If institutions and students do not have highly aligned goals and purposes for
completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century, then there is likely to be disappointment on
both sides. On the one hand, academics and institutions may be disappointed if students do not go
beyond the minimum requirements in their engagement with learning tasks. On the other hand,
students may balk at learning things that have little apparent connection with vocations. Thus,
research that makes a thorough comparison of institutional and student perspectives on the goals
and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree may “add-value” for institutions seeking to
position themselves for success in the 21st century.
It is important to note that the focus of this paper is on core competences, skills,
capabilities, and dispositions of completing a bachelor’s degree and is specifically restricted to the
North American context. However, given the global nature of the higher education industry, it is
expected that this literature review analysis will have applicability benefit beyond the United
States. The ultimate goal of this paper is to offer suggestions as to how those differences in aims
and goals could be further evaluated in the hope of resolving potential misalignments surrounding
the purpose of higher education in the 21st century.
Methods
To examine the purposes and goals for pursuing a bachelor’s degree, a comprehensive
search of the literature was conducted between September 2012 and December 2013 to identify
relevant publications that explored such themes. Specifically, this study incorporated Critical
Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) to compare institutional and student perspectives on the goals and
purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree. CIS, a method derived by Dixon-Woods et al. (2006),
aims to establish theories and concepts from diverse bodies of existing literatures through
systematic review and meta-ethnography methodologies. Additionally, CIS seeks to question the
ways in which the problems, assumptions, and solutions are constructed in the literature. In other
words, the primary purpose of CIS is to generate theory in discrete stages of the literature review.
Through the use of CIS, four databases were utilized to search for relevant literatures on
the goals and purposes of higher education: 1) Education Resources Information Center (ERIC),
2) Education Research Complete (EBSCO), 3) Google Scholar, and 4) Amazon.com. A hand
search of newspaper and magazine articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside
Higher Ed published between 2000 and 2013 was also conducted. Preference was given to peerreviewed journal articles and books. Scholarly articles that examined the economic or
employment advantage of completing a bachelor’s degree were not considered relevant for this
study because they typically do not address the discipline-specific competence and disposition
outcomes gained by undergraduate students.
The ERIC and EBSCO database search used the following key terms and combinations:
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all("purpose") AND all(higher education);
all("expectations") AND all(students) AND all(degree);
all("purpose") AND all(students) AND all(higher education);
all("goals") AND all(students) AND all(degree);
all("aims") AND all(students) AND all(higher education);
all("aspirations") AND all(students) AND all(degree);
all("expectations") AND all(university) AND all(degree);
all("expectations") AND all(students) AND all(degree).
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Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
Each of the above bulleted searches provided over 1,000 results. To narrow the search,
‘Education Level’ (e.g., ‘Higher Education’) and ‘Publication Date’ (e.g., ‘2000-2013’) filters
were selected. This restriction produced approximately 20 relevant articles of which were reduced
to 13 peer-reviewed articles concerning the aspirations and outcomes of a bachelor’s degree
relative to generic skills and dispositional outcomes.
The Amazon.com search engine was used to select published books on the purposes and
goals of higher education in the 21st century. The search terms consisted of:
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‘purpose higher education’;
‘goals university education’;
‘student motivation college’;
‘student expectation education’.
To narrow the search process, the ‘Customers who bought this item also bought’ option
was selected to explore books on similar topics or themes. A total of 15-20 books were found that
appeared relevant to this study; however, only eleven books were deemed appropriate for this
particular study based on the chapter themes discussed by the author(s).
An additional search was performed on Google Scholar to identify other published peerreviewed articles or scholarly books that may not have been found via ERIC or Amazon.com.
Those search terms, included:
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‘purpose of higher education’;
‘meaning of higher education’;
‘university expectations of university degree’;
‘student expectations of higher education’.
This search resulted in a further 9 published articles and 8 magazine/newspaper articles, of
which only seven peer-reviewed articles and five magazine/newspaper articles were considered to
be closely relevant to the goals and purposes of a bachelor’s degree.
In summary, approximately 20 peer-reviewed articles, eleven books, three magazine or
newspaper articles, and two policy briefs were considered relevant to the study. Before examining
the various goals and purposes of a bachelor’s degree, this paper provides a literature review
between institutional and student perspectives of the purposes and goals for completing a
bachelor’s degree relative to discipline-specific competence and disposition outcomes.
Findings
Our critical interpretive synthesis revealed nine major themes that mutually examined the
goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree. Like Dixon-Woods et al. (2006), we
identified the “synthetic constructs” of both internal purposes and external purposes, and the
complex interplay between them. We explore each contributing synthetic constructs by
synthesizing and comparing institutional purposes of the bachelor’s degree, followed by student
goals of completing higher education in the 21st century. We conclude with an analytic
comparison of the two syntheses in the discussion section.
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Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
Institutional purposes and goals of a bachelor’s degree
It has long been advocated that higher education providers should teach undergraduate
students a wide range of competency and generic skills that includes but are not limited to
communication skills, problem-solving skills, self-directed learning skills, the ability to integrate
ideas and concepts, and the capacity to work in teams and group environments (Menges & Austin,
2001). These goals do not seem greatly different to the original purposes when the Puritans
founded Harvard College in 1636 to produce “a learned clergy and a lettered people” (Rudolph,
1962, p. 6). Bill Readings once stated in The University in Ruins that colleges had served “as
producer, protector, and inculcator of an idea of national culture.” Today, however, most colleges
and universities do not have a single, unifying purpose in higher education. The bachelor’s degree
– often the symbol of success and the ticket to the middle class – has now been viewed as the new
high school diploma to produce highly skilled workers or ‘citizens of the world’ in the 21st
century. For example, the Time/Carnegie Corporation of New York (2012) recent survey reported
that 40 percent of undergraduate students believe that the purposes and goal of completing a
bachelor’s degree is to gain new knowledge and skills for a career while 36 percent of college
leaders believe that a bachelor’s degree should teach students how to think critically. The
Association of American Colleges and Universities (2002) identified three goals students should
develop by the completion of a U.S. bachelor’s degree: (1) be informed by knowledge about the
natural and social worlds, (2) be empowered through the mastery of intellectual and practical
skills, and (3) be responsible for their personal actions and for civic values. While the demand for
a college or university education continues to grow in both the United States and across the world,
many higher education stakeholders are revisiting and questioning the enterprise of contemporary
higher education in the 21st century (Bok, 2013).
For instance, Lagemann and Lewis (2012) have suggested that the public purpose for
attending colleges and universities has less to do with the pursuit of economic or employment
benefits and much more about preparing young adults with generic skills and civic education such
as, civic values, ideals, and virtues. They argued that college students must “develop generic skills
and dispositions to listen intently and empathetically to other people; … analyze rationally what is
said, read, and observed; … present thoughts clearly; … confront unsupported assertions; and …
identify reasonable strategies to take necessary action” (Lagemann & Lewis, 2012, p. 12). In other
words, the authors advocate that a bachelor’s degree should provide college students with the
opportunity to gain new knowledge, core competencies, and generic skills, such as, problem
solving, creativity, communication, critical thinking, and creativity skills that are deemed
necessary for success in the 21st century. Likewise, Kiziltepe (2010) claimed that students should
develop five areas by the completion of higher education: (1) interpersonal competence, (2) multicultural understanding, (3) skills in problem identification and problem solving, (4) a sense of
purpose, and (5) the confidence to act in ways that make a difference. Similarly, Nussbaum (2012)
recommended that a bachelor’s degree should provide students with several generic skills and
dispositions, such as, “the ability to think critically; the ability to transcend local loyalties and to
approach world problems as a ‘citizen of the world’; and, finally, the ability to imagine
sympathetically the predicament of another person” (p. 7). Nonetheless, many voices suggest that
the goals and purposes of higher education are to develop individuals and society by inculcating
generic capabilities and dispositions.
Historically, there is ample empirical evidence from Pascarella and Terenzini (2005),
Astin (1977), and Perry (1968) to claim that colleges and universities prepare individuals for
longer, fuller, and more productive lives. For instance, Palmer (2012) stressed that undergraduate
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Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
education should “address issues that are central to the life of young adults concerning purpose,
core values, and direction in life” (p. 15). Equally, Polanyi (1974) stated that higher education’s
primary purpose is to help students “learn who they are, to search for a larger purpose for their
lives, and to leave college as better human beings” (p. 47). Likewise, Chickering’s (1993) seven
vectors of identity development indicate that the aims of undergraduate education should be to
prepare students to develop personally and interpersonally throughout their four critical years.
These seven vectors are: (1) develop intellectual, physical, manual, and interpersonal competence;
(2) manage emotions (e.g., self-control, self-expression, self-awareness); (3) develop emotional
and instrumental autonomy along with interdependence; (4) develop mature interpersonal
relations (e.g., tolerance, appreciation, intimacy); (5) establish identity (e.g., body, appearance,
gender, sexual orientation, self-acceptance); (6) develop purpose (e.g., vocational plans, personal
interests, family commitments); and (7) develop integrity (e.g., humanizing, personalizing values,
and congruence). In other words, the goals and purposes of higher education is to create new
knowledge for the common good (Maxwell, 2007; McHenry, 2007), while at the same time,
develop students to understand the whole human being and their own emotional, interpersonal,
ethical, and intellectual development (Palmer, Zajonic, Scribner, & Nepo, 2010).
To enumerate, Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) found that roughly two-thirds consider it
“essential” or “very important” that their college enhance their cognitive, social, and affective
development (i.e., critical thinking skills d=.50, self-understanding d=.69, responsible citizenship
d=.67, personal values d=.67, emotional development d=.63, reflective judgment thinking d=.90,
and epistemological sophistication or maturity d=2.00). While the limited college learning
reported by Arum and Roksa (2011) is quite likely an underestimation of students’ true college
learning, their study suggests that higher education institutions may not be placing sufficient
emphasis on developing students’ generic competencies in favor of meaning, purpose,
authenticity, and spirituality. Typically, ‘generic skills’ are defined as “the set of skills that can be
broadly applied across different contexts beyond disciplinary content knowledge” (Barrie, 2008,
p. 11). A good example is the “Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP)” by the Lumina Foundation
of which attempts to define what college students’ should learn, understand, and know at the
completion of a bachelor’s degree in American higher education institutions. The DQP identifies
five general domains of knowledge and generic skills that higher education institutions should
focus on to improve student learning within undergraduate education: (1) civic learning, (2)
applied learning, (3) intellectual skills, (4) integrative knowledge, and (5) specialized knowledge.
In other words, one can argue that the most widely valued general or discipline-specific
competencies are - critical thinking; problem solving; interpersonal skills; logical and independent
thought; communication and information management skills; intellectual curiosity; creativity;
ethical awareness; integrity; and tolerance (Bath, Smith, Stein, & Swann, 2004).
To extend the argument, Haigh and Clifford (2011) suggested that the purposes and goals
of higher education are not only to develop students’ employability skills but also to develop
students’ moral values and core competencies. They emphasized that higher education institutions
should produce a ‘new generation of citizens’ who will care about the world through personal,
social, and environmental responsibility. Furthermore, Hansen (2011) argued that the primary
purposes and goals of higher education are to teach students’ generic skills in civic courage, moral
judgment, critical thinking, and scientific and global awareness in order to prepare them for a
democratic, civilized, and global society. Additionally, Sullivan (2011) asserted that the ultimate
goal and purpose of higher education is to give students’ complex knowledge, capacity in skillful
practices, and a commitment to the purposes espoused by their community. Thus, it can be argued
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Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
that the aims of a bachelor’s degree are two-fold: (a) to serve a democratic-centered civic
engagement based on addressing pressing real-world problems and (b) the development of a fully
rounded intellectually sophisticated and caring person (Saltmarsh & Hartley, 2012).
While personal and social development is advocated, a more balanced view of the purpose
of higher education can be seen in other arguments within the bachelor’s degree (Selingo, 2013).
For example, a few authors have noted that a bachelor’s degree exists “to educate and equip the
mind and the soul to recognize what is right and good in life, to prepare a student for the demands
of a modern labor market, and to offer specialized learning in various fields and occupations”
(Bennett & Wilezol, 2013, p. XVI). Other authors have argued that the main purpose of
undergraduate education is to develop graduates who can contribute to the socio-economic
development of modern time (Stoecker & Tryon, 2009). Higher education institutions “supply the
knowledge and ideas that create new industries, protect us from disease, preserve and enrich our
culture, and inform us about our history, our environment, our society, and ourselves” (Bok, 2013,
p. 1). Furthermore, higher education helps “students prepare for work in ways that contribute to
both their overall wellbeing and to a better and more just society for all” (McArthur, 2011, p.
738). Consequently, it can be considered that the primary purpose of higher education is not only
to develop discipline-specific competence as well as generic skills and dispositions among
undergraduate students, but to also create wealth for a global economy (Rowland, 2002). Thus,
while the dominant voices about the goals of higher education focus on individual and social
development, recent studies suggest that there is also a call for the university to serve socioeconomic development for the betterment of all people.
Student’s purposes and goals of completing a bachelor’s degree
Today’s traditional-age undergraduates enter college under the weight of tremendous
social and economic pressures. Nowadays, undergraduate students have often viewed higher
education as a place to develop economic and social benefits, such as, enhanced careers and
greater earning potential, as well as to obtain knowledge and expertise in a disciplinary or
professional area. Notably, many scholars have often reported that undergraduate students expect
universities to give them the necessary tools they need to find a job, to better understand
themselves as people, and to gain multiple opportunities to make the world a better place in our
society (Henderson-King & Smith, 2006). For instance, Astin et al. (2011) claimed that first-year
students expect their institutions to play an instrumental role in preparing them for employment
(94%) and graduate or advanced education (81%). Though this ambition has been increasingly
focused on jobs and money, this altruistic and possibly romantic view of student motivation is not
the complete picture. Specifically, for some students, the primary purpose of undergraduate
education may be heavily focused on extrinsic factors (e.g., to attend graduate school, to secure
and/or to prepare for a future career), while for others, it may be primarily motivated by intrinsic
or personal reasons (e.g., to experience self-growth, to meet new friends).
Historically, the Yale Report of 1828 have emphasized that the predominant reasons a
student should attend higher education is “the discipline and furniture of the mind” (p. 7). Today,
however, there is substantial evidence to claim that student expectations has changed and that
undergraduate students are being more motivated by personal or social development concerns as
well as by instrumental, materialistic ambitions. For instance, Barber, Donnelly, and Rizvi (2013)
noted that student’s primary decision to pursue a bachelor’s degree is have the “college
experience” (i.e., meeting students, being inspired by new ideas and/or leading academics,
opportunity to socialize or to lead an organization, and make friends). Similarly, Levine and Dean
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Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
(2012) claimed that student goals for completing undergraduate education are: (a) to make them
feel secure, (b) to be autonomous grown-ups, (c) to seek intimacy, and (d) to live in an Internet
world. Likewise, Bui (2002) highlighted 11 reasons undergraduate students pursue a bachelor’s
degree: (1) their friends were going to college, (2) their parents expected them to go to college, (3)
their high school teachers/counselor persuaded them to go, (4) they wanted a college degree to
achieve their career goals, (5) they wanted a better income with a college degree, (6) they liked to
learn, (7) they wanted to provide a better life for their own children, (8) they wanted to gain their
independence, (9) they wanted to acquire skills to function effectively in society, (10) they wanted
to get out of their parents' neighborhood, and (11) they did not want to work immediately after
high school. Nevertheless, some college students view higher education as a place to acquire a
job, while others view it as an opportunity to obtain new knowledge and expertise in a disciplinary
or professional area.
This result is not surprising when the “2012 Freshman Survey” conducted by the UCLA
Cooperative Institutional Research Program reported that students expect undergraduate education
to: (a) give significant opportunities to discuss and negotiate controversial issues, (b) allow them
to work cooperatively with diverse people, (c) help them develop tolerance of others with
different beliefs, and (d) help them see the world from someone else’s perspective. Nevertheless,
recent research has shown that the primary goals and purposes for completing a bachelor’s degree
has been increasingly focused on economic and social benefits of society. For example, Stephens
(2013) argued that there are “three main reasons students go to university: (1) for the social
experience, (2) to get a job, and (3) to learn for learning’s sake” (p. 1-2). Similarly, Pryorr et al.
(2012) outlined that students expect that a bachelor’s degree would allow them to acquire a better
job, to earn a good salary, to gain an appreciation of ideas, and to prepare for graduate or
professional school. Likewise, Kennett, Reed, and Lam (2011) suggested that students’ goals in
pursuing undergraduate education included various internal reasons such as, self-improvement,
achieving life goals, and societal contributions along with several external reasons such as, career,
money, and family. Comparatively, McArthur (2011) found that undergraduate students saw
university as a means to increase their annual salary and job opportunities, accelerate their career
paths, and enhance their marketability in the global knowledge economy. In other words, student
goals and purposes for completing a bachelor’s degree has been increasingly motivated by
personal and economic benefits, rather than intellectual or social good.
As a result, we conclude that students have multiple purposes, including both extrinsic
goals (e.g., to secure and/or to prepare for a future career) and intrinsic or personal reasons (e.g.,
to experience self-growth) (Henderson-King & Smith, 2006). Though undergraduate has become
purely dominated by personal development concerns and by instrumental, materialistic ambitions,
undergraduate education has also been focused by intellectual, personal, and economic ambitions
at the completion of higher education. Nevertheless, several recent studies have concluded that
students’ purposes and goals of higher education is to enhance their careers and to earn potential
in order to contribute to the economic and social welfare of society.
Comparing student and provider aims, expectations, goals, and purposes for a bachelor’s degree
The internal and external challenges on the goals and purposes of higher education from
our literature review had interacted to produce misalignment. Specifically, nine themes were
identified reflecting the various aims or goals of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st
century. These were:
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Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
1. Social democratic values and action; civic engagement. This theme relates to the
intention that upon graduation students will take an active role in society, service, and
co-curricular activities, with active concern for involvement in civic concerns.
2. Advanced intellectual skills. This theme relates to high-level cognitive and intellectual
skills such as problem solving, analytic and critical thinking, and creativity.
3. Advanced communication skills. This theme relates to sophisticated abilities to
communicate orally, in writing, and through ICT-supported media so as to effectively
transmit information, persuade, argue, and so on.
4. Interpersonal skills. This theme focuses on students gaining competence around
relationships with others. This includes leading in conditions of complex social
diversity, exercising tolerance, curiosity, ingenuity, and imagination.
5. Vocational & employment preparedness. This theme has to do with using a bachelor’s
degree education as a means of gaining a highly remunerative job and/or career or
having the skills that permit entry into a desirable future career.
6. Personal life quality enhancement. This theme has to do with developing a personal
sense of purpose, perspective, and identity such that the quality of one’s own life is
improved.
7. Personal integrity. This theme relates to becoming aware of dissonance and resonance
and having the competence to make decisions in accordance with personal morality
and values.
8. Graduate school education preparedness. This theme focuses on the skills, knowledge,
and competencies required when entering graduate programs in a specific discipline.
9. Family expectations/reasons. This theme relates to fulfilling obligations to,
expectations of, and aspirations of one’s family as the prime motivation for completing
a university degree.
To make comparison between institutions and undergraduate students, Table I was created
to highlight the publications that had explored each theme. While this list simply reflects the
number of sources found in the review and gives no weighting to the size or generalizability of the
study, the pattern provides an interesting insight. While almost all categories are reflected in
studies carried out with students and institutions, the impression one is left with is that higher
education institutions have placed heavy emphasis on much larger and grander objectives to do
with reforming society and the classic individual cognitive and communicative agendas. In
contrast, undergraduate students appear to focus much more on personal economic, family, and
personal development goals.
Table 1. Authors Examining the Goals & Purposes of the Bachelor’s Degree (by publication year)
Interest Group
Domain
Institutions
Social Democratic Values &
•
Action; Civic Engagement
•
•
•
Barber, Donnelly, & Rizvi,
2013;
Bennett & Wilezol, 2013;
Bok, 2013;
Selingo, 2013;
9
Student
• Henderson-King & Smith,
2006;
• Ramaley & Leskes, 2002
Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
Interest Group
Domain
Institutions
Student
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
AAC&U, 2012;
Delbanco, 2012;
Lagemann & Lewis, 2012;
Nussbaum, 2012;
Saltmarsh & Hartley, 2012;
Haigh & Clifford, 2011;
Hansen, 2011;
Lumina Foundation, 2011;
McArthur, 2011;
Sullivan, 2011;
Kiziltepe, 2010;
Stoecker & Tryon, 2009
Advanced intellectual skills
•
•
(incl. creativity & problem
•
•
•
•
Barber, Donnelly, & Rizvi,
2013;
Keeling & Hersh, 2012;
Lagemann & Lewis, 2012;
Nussbaum, 2012;
Time/Carnegie Corporation,
2012
Hansen, 2011;
Lumina Foundation, 2011;
Sullivan, 2011;
Kiziltepe, 2010
Keeling & Hersh, 2012;
Lagemann & Lewis, 2012;
Nussbaum, 2012;
Hansen, 2011
•
•
•
Lagemann & Lewis, 2012;
Nussbaum, 2012;
Kiziltepe, 2010
• Pyor et al., 2012
•
•
•
•
•
Bennett & Wilezol, 2013;
Selingo, 2013;
Keeling & Hersh, 2012;
McArthur, 2011;
Kiziltepe, 2010
•
solving)
•
•
•
•
Advanced communication skills •
•
•
•
Inter-personal skills (incl.
leadership, tolerance)
Vocational & employment
preparedness
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
10
Barber, Donnelly, & Rizvi,
2013;
Stephens, 2013;
Pryor et al., 2012;
Kennett, Reed, & Lam, 2011;
Henderson-King & Smith,
2006;
Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005;
Ramaley & Leskes, 2002
Barber, Donnelly, & Rizvi,
2013;
Selingo, 2013;
Stephens, 2013;
Time/Carnegie Corporation,
2012;
Kennett, Reed, & Lam, 2011;
Ramaley & Leskes, 2010;
Henderson-King & Smith,
2006;
Astin, Oseguera, Sax, & Korn,
Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
Interest Group
Domain
Institutions
Student
•
Personal Life Quality
• Palmer, Zajonic, Scribner, &
Nepo, 2010
•
•
•
•
•
•
• Pyor et al., 2012;
• Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005
Enhancement
Personal Integrity
2002;
Bui, 2002
Haigh & Clifford, 2011;
Kiziltepe, 2010
Graduate school education
Stephens, 2013
Levine & Dean, 2012;
Kennett, Reed, & Lam, 2011;
Henderson-King & Smith,
2006;
• Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005
• Pyor et al., 2012
preparedness
Family expectations/reasons
• Kennett, Reed, & Lam, 2011
• Bui, 2002;
• Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005
Discussion
After conducting a CIS of the relevant literature, our findings suggest that there is a partial
misalignment between institutional and student expectations for completing a bachelor’s degree in
the 21st century. From Table I, current and past literature claims that student expectations and
purposes for completing undergraduate education tend to be very instrumental and personal, while
higher education institution aims and purposes of undergraduate education tend towards highly
ideal life- and society-changing consequences.
In one sense, the ambition of institutions often tends to be global, long-term, and highminded, while student ambitions. On the other hand, the ambition tend to be much more personal,
short-termed, and economically rational. Specifically, student motivations and aims seems to be
quite mixed in which some of the life goals and societal contributions, for example, do not seem
incompatible with the more ethereal objectivities identified with higher education by scholars and
institutions. Nowadays, the outlook of a university, given current ranking and comparison systems
(e.g., U.S. News & World Report, QS World University Rankings, Academic Rankings of World
Universities, Times Higher Education, Top American Research Universities, Forbes America's
Best Colleges), has to be both global and long-term. These rankings are especially seductive since
they offer clear-cut evidence of an institution’s quality and purpose both global and long-term. It
may well be that in the life-course of an adult, a similar perspective might be developed in
individuals once they reach middle age, rather than be present during late adolescence or early
adulthood. Perhaps, college graduates would then see the purpose of higher education more like
institutions if they were asked 20-30 years after completing their degrees. Nonetheless, we
11
Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
imagine that colleges and universities might be pleased to see that student motivations and
purposes include intellectual and societal contribution goals, and are not solely defined in
economic or personal gain terms. There are some overlap, however, between institutional and
student goals around the classic ‘ivory tower’ aims and goals of higher education. To some extent,
students do share an interest in institutional ambitions to deliver academic and scholarly debates,
to develop knowledge and to share new ideas. However, in other extent, there seems to be a
misalignment of goals and purposes may have some negative consequences.
In one sense, pursing several purposes and goals in higher education has proved especially
advantageous because the different aims often meet one another to produce a whole greater than
the sum of its parts (Bok, 2013). For instance, Baker, Baldwin, and Makker (2012) have suggested
that this misalignment of the purposes and goals for a bachelor’s degree have contributed to the
curricular change being seen in several liberal arts colleges in the United States where institutions
are diversifying their curriculum by adding vocational and professional degree programs. The rise
of liberal arts colleges can help to keep vocational programs from becoming excessively practical
that many employers consider important for success in their personal, career, and community lives
(Humphreys & Kelly, 2014). In the other sense, pursuing several goals and purposes may create
conflict with one another where institutions become less intellectually driven and culturally
oriented and instead model themselves on businesses and commercial ventures, which perhaps
may be detriment of the original aims and purposes of higher education (Barber, Donnelly, &
Rizvi, 2013; Edmundson, 2013). For example, the demand for students to receive practical
training at research universities can marginalize the humanities and undermine liberal education.
Hence, maintaining a balance among several goals and purposes of higher education has become a
necessary function for university leaders (Bok, 2013). However, the relative misalignment
between institution and student expectations of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century
may ultimately suggest that higher education have a significant challenge in front of them.
To enumerate, if institutions are serious about encouraging students to embrace the lofty
ambitions of a bachelor’s degree, then they will need to take seriously the differences in student
goals. While not discounting the importance of career and vocational preparation as well as the
economic and social benefits arising from a bachelor’s degree, much career and vocational
training does not require or take place in traditional higher education institutions. Rather, it takes
place in polytechnic or for-profit institutions (i.e., University of Phoenix, Kaplan University), as
well as on-the-job apprenticeship industry training or non-traditional higher education programs
(i.e., UnCollege, Minerva Schools at KGI). As long as students and families perceive
undergraduate education as being primarily about access to economic and social rewards, then the
grand ambitions of higher education will continue to be undermined by instrumental motivations.
Thus, many colleges and universities in the 21st century may continue to experience challenges in
making non-instrumental aspects of undergraduate education as powerfully evident to today’s
students. Notwithstanding the apparent consensus across institutions concerning the purposes and
goals of a bachelor’s degree, it may be that colleges and universities do little, if anything, to
foreground their objectives and, thus, view college students as customers or products for their
degree programs. However, if undergraduates were to actively encounter these ambitions in every
course and see the connection between their current study and the institution’s lofty ideals, then
perhaps misalignment between institutions and students would diminish overtime.
Nevertheless, overcoming the challenges of the misalignment may have benefits for
institutional and societal improvement. Whatever its advantages and disadvantages, embracing
multiple purposes in higher education can increase the pressure for growth (Bok, 2013). More
12
Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
explicit attention to whether students gain intended employability skills, abilities, or dispositions
aligned with institutional goals and purposes would be useful. For example, undergraduate
students could utilize Degreed to add evidence of their learning from transcripts, MOOCs,
certificates, and courses prior to employment. Likewise, institutions could explicitly assess the
student body for these outcomes as part of institutional self-review—similar to the processes of
institutional review carried out at James Madison University (Wise & Cotten, 2009; Zilberberg,
Brown, Harmes, & Anderson, 2009). Alternatively, it is possible for colleges and universities to
obtain evaluations of the attributes noted by employers or graduate schools when students are
selected for employment or entry to further education. Such analyses might reveal that
institutional attributes are not being achieved over the students’ four critical years in college and
thus, institutions could utilize this information to review and revise their curricular offerings in
order to make their goals and purposes more explicit and attainable (Hubball & Pearson, 2011).
Furthermore, having academic staff apply their considerable abilities to the issue of how each and
every course could contribute to helping students achieve generic skills as well as disciplinespecific competencies could help make institutional goals more tangible and achievable. In
addition, inviting faculty members and the board to a serious discussion on the basic purposes and
goals of the institution, and define its particular niche on a strategic plan will help strengthen the
purpose of completing higher education in the 21st century (Bok, 2013).
A further benefit of explicit attention to this misalignment would be greater institutional
autonomy as well as greater faculty voice in governance to meet accountability expectations
(Zemsky, 2013; Trowler, 2011). Publicly funded institutions would then not only be able to claim
lofty, socially beneficial goals within their mission statement, but also demonstrate that highlyvalued outcomes and benefits are in fact achieved by students within their programs. By doing so,
parents and politicians would then have some assurance that there is a value-added for completing
a college degree and that the things colleges and universities promise have some substance and
usefulness to contemporary society. Such a program of action may also help liberal arts colleges
resist the pressure to vocationalize curriculum, so that such higher education institutions can
continue to play an important part in developing a civilized society, communicative competencies,
and socially beneficial attitudes among undergraduate students (Hanstedt, 2012).
Conclusion
As McArthur (2011) once concluded, “higher education therefore has a social, an
economic, and an educative role that extends well beyond its walls and its own students” (p. 746).
We have documented that higher education institutions do share some goals and purposes with
undergraduate students. Yet, we have also demonstrated that there are contrasting emphases
between institutions and undergraduate students. Thus, this literature review is an attempt to
revitalize the interest and research into the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree
in the 21st century. If students are graduating from college having learned very little, then what is
the purpose of higher education? Though some elements of higher education purposes and goals
do align well with student aims and expectations, there seems to be a significant mismatch
between the lofty and, possibly unattainable, ideals advocated by institutions and the somewhat
pragmatic, instrumental goals of undergraduate students.
As a result, this paper has pointed to an important, yet unfulfilled, research agenda in
higher education. Do bachelor degrees fulfill the institutional ambitions of advanced skills,
generic competencies, and high-ideals by the time students’ graduate from college? Such an
13
Chan, R., Brown, G. T., & Ludlow, L. (2014). What is the purpose of higher education?: A comparison of institutional and student perspectives on
the goals and purposes of completing a bachelor’s degree in the 21st century. Paper to be presented at the annual American Education Research
Association (AERA) conference. Philadelphia, PA: April 5, 2014.
answer would require operationalizing the institutional purposes, collecting data about the valueadded impact on student skills and dispositions, and using such data to consider modifications to
pedagogy, curriculum, and faculty development. Indeed, approaching this misalignment between
institutions and students may appear to be one of the most important and crucial self-evaluation
tasks a university must undergo if colleges and universities seek to slow “an avalanche” that is
coming in the revolution ahead.
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AUTHORS
ROY Y. CHAN is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher
Education at Boston College, Lynch School of Education, Campion Hall 240, 140 Commonwealth
Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467; roy.chan@bc.edu. His research interests include student learning
outcomes, student mobility, comparative and international higher education, and assessment and
accountability issues in higher education.
GAVIN T. L. BROWN is Associate Professor in the School of Learning, Development and
Professional Practice at the University of Auckland, Faculty of Education, Private Bag 92019,
Auckland, 1142, New Zealand; gt.brown@auckland.ac.nz. Prior to Auckland, he was Associate
Head of the Department of Psychological Studies at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. His
research focuses on cross-cultural differences in teacher and student responses to and
understandings of educational assessment.
LARRY H. LUDLOW is Chair and Full Professor in the Department of Educational Research,
Measurement and Evaluation at Boston College, Lynch School of Education, Campion Hall 336C,
140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467; ludlow@bc.edu. Recently, he was inducted
into the 2013 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Fellow in recognition of his
“exceptional scientific or scholarly contributions to education research.” His research interests
include teacher testing, faculty evaluations, applied psychometrics, and the history of statistics.
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