Quality in Higher Education: Systems and Lifeworlds in Collision

Questions abound about the quality and purpose of American higher education in the early 21st century. Solutions have tended to be framed in terms of economic production and manufacturing quality control models, and these terms increasingly characterize state and federal systems of authority over colleges and universities. As Habermas theorized, system logic, left to its own devices, will ultimately overpower, or “colonize,” the day to day meaning making culture or “lifeworld” of the campus. This colonization runs at counter purposes to the essential foundation of meaning for authentic education. A solution is proposed, suggesting that a deeper base to higher learning lies in embracing the traditional values of the academy and cultivating the faculty as a uniquely rich resource in support of student learning and the dual work of preservation and innovation in addressing the most pressing needs of humanity.