The Changing Federal Role in Higher Education

The recently passed Education Amendments of 1972 authorize large amounts of money to support projects designed by educational institutions themselves for the following purposes: (1) encouraging the reform, innovation, and improvement of postsecondary education, and providing equal educational opportunity for all; (2) the creation of institutions and programs involving new paths to career and professional training, and new combinations of academic and experimental learning; (3) the establishment of institutions and programs based on the technology of communications; (4) the carrying out in postsecondary educational institutions of changes in internal structure and operations designed to clarify institutional priorities and purposes; (5) the design and introduction of cost-effective methods of instruction and operation; (6) the introduction of institutional reforms designed to expand individual opportunities for entering and reentering institutions and pursuing programs of study tailored to individual needs; (7) the introduction of reforms in graduate education, in the structure of academic professions, and in the recruitment and retention of faculties; and (8) the creation of new institutions and programs for examining and awarding credentials to individuals, and the introduction of reforms in current institutional practices related thereto. (Author/HS)