Bøger i Vanderbilt Issues in Higher Education serien

Interdisciplinarity, a favourite buzzword of faculty and administrators, has been approriated to describe so many academic pursuits that it is virtually meaningless. This work remedies this confusion with an original conceptualization of interdisciplinarity based on interviews with faculty.

At the end of the 18th century, just 18 colleges existed in the USA. One hundred years later, there were over 450 American colleges and universities. The role of educational institutions had been utterly transformed. This title provides a fresh view of the development of American colleges.

Using as a framework the ""theory of careers"" developed by John L. Holland, the authors of this volume examine the patterns of student stability and change inherent in the college experience, as well as the variations in professional attitudes and behaviours of college faculty.

More than a quarter of the students who enter four-year institutions in the USA depart at the end of their first year. In this discussion of the ""departure puzzle"", scholars of the college student experience re-evaluate Vincent Tinto's interactionalist perspective on the issue.