Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses is a book written by Richard Arum with Josipa Roksa, published by the University of Chicago Press in January 2011.

The books examines the current state of higher education in the United States, and argues that a college degree is worth very little today for the cost and time it takes to receive one. The book and its findings received extensive national media coverage and sparked a debate about what undergraduate students learn once they get into college.

The research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and again at the end of their second year. The analysis reveals that a significant proportion of students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing.

See Also

• In the Basement of the Ivory Tower
• Real Education

Reviews

• The New Yorker^[1]

References