Rhetoric and reward in higher education: how the pillars of tradition impede academic reform and what might be done about it

Abstract

A contemporary deluge of negative polemic about higher education has resulted in an alarming erosion of public support. This paper examines the organizational traditions of "the university" in the context of improved teaching and academic reform. It takes the position that small scale, individual initiatives to improve university teaching can initially inform a more general population of higher education stakeholders as they re-think their basic purposes, missions, and collective actions, but that systemic change requires system wide commitment. In particular, issues related to university incentives and rewards are examined in the context of structural practice and tradition, with a discussion of the challenges of institutional change and survival.