In a move to strengthen its influence on higher education reform in the U.S., Washington think tank The American Enterprise Institute announced Thursday the launch of the Center on Higher Education Reform (CHER).
The center, which is led by AEI resident scholar Andrew P. Kelly, is expected to “conduct independent, data-driven research and analysis designed to inform policymaking and shape the higher education reform conversation,” according to AEI.
“AEI’s new Center on Higher Education Reform will lead the conversation about how we can make higher education work for all Americans, and to prepare American students to flourish in the decades to come,” AEI president Arthur Brooks said in a statement.
With concerns about the state of U.S. higher education growing nationally, AEI seeks to have CHER become a resource for key decision makers to help them address challenges of rapid increases in tuition, lackluster completion rates, swelling student debt and other issues that raise questions about higher education’s sustainability.
“The higher education reform debate is today where the K-12 education reform debate was 15 years ago,” said AEI director of education policy Frederick M. Hess.
Kelly, who joined AEI four years ago as a research assistant, described CHER as being similar to the research centers that routinely get established within college and university academic departments.
