Cultural Competence for Public Managers

Chapter 13

Cultural Competence in Higher Education

13.1 Introduction

The way in which higher education is approached today has changed significantly from how it was approached in the 20th century. Many more U.S. colleges and universities have become student centered and rely less on rigid norms of accessing achievement and the like. Schools of higher education such as Reed College, for example, pride themselves on allowing students to find their own academic path. As the oldest and most notable academic society, Phi Beta Kappa has maintained an over-200-year tradition of supporting a lifelong curiosity in the liberal arts and sciences. The landscape of modern universities has shifted from authoritarian leadership to a student-centered environment. ...