Improving Learning at Universities: Who is Responsible?

Recently, I published a letter in the Wall Street Journal (Armstrong 2004a) with the basic message that business school education has been losing effectiveness. Most important, students are not learning to do things, such as making an effective oral presentation, writing a persuasive management report, listening to others, conducting a meeting, or using statistical procedures to analyze data. This problem is not confined to business schools; it is plaguing the educational system on almost every level. My letter drew responses from alumni, faculty, recruiters, consultants, and students. Nearly all of them agreed with my assessment, claiming that the problem is rampant but ignored. As I will show below, however, evidence-based suggestions can resolve the problem.