The Carnegie Foundation report says that many colleges have tried to be "all things to all people". In doing so, they have increasingly catered to a narrow minded careerism while failing to cultivate a global vision among their students. The current cr, it contends, does not derive from a legitimate desire to put learning to productive ends. The problem is that in too many academic fields, the work has no context; skills, rather than being means, have become ends. Students are offered a variety of options and allowed to pick their way to a degree. In short, driven by careerism, "the nation’s colleges and universities are more successful in providing credentials (文凭) than in providing a quality education for their students. "The report concludes that the special challenge confronting the undergraduate college is one of shaping an "integrated core" of common learning. Such a core would introduce students" to essential knowledge, to connections across the disciplines, and in the end, to application of knowledge to life beyond the campus."
Although the key to a good college is a high-quality faculty, the Carnegie study found that most colleges do very little to encourage good teaching. In fact, they do much to undermine it. As one professor observed: "Teaching is important, we are told, and yet faculty know that research and publication matter most." Not surprisingly, over the last twenty years colleges and universities have failed to graduate half of their four-year degree candidates. Faculty members who dedicated themselves to teaching soon discover that they will not be granted tenure (终身任期 ), promotion, or substantial salary increases. Yet 70 percent of all faculty say their interests lie more in teaching than in research. Additionally, a frequent complaint among young scholars is that" There is pressure to publish, although there is virtually no interest among administrators or colleagues in the content of the publications. American colleges and universities failed to graduate half of their four-year degree candidates because（）