VDFP ACE Transcript information
Catalog ACE Transcript Service
About ACE – www.acenet.edu
Founded in 1918, the American Council on Education (ACE) is the nation’s unifying voice for higher education. ACE serves as a consensus leader on key higher education issues and seeks to influence public policy through advocacy, research, and program initiatives.
By fostering greater collaboration and new partnerships within and outside higher education, ACE helps colleges and universities anticipate and address the challenges of the 21st century and contribute to a stronger nation and a better world. Our members and associates are approximately 1,800 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher education-related associations, organizations, and corporations.
Three key drive ACE’s activities: (1) Representation, (2) Leadership development, and (3) Service.
Mission Statement ACE, the major coordinating body for all the nation’s higher education institutions, seeks to provide leadership and a unifying voice on key higher education issues and to influence public policy through advocacy, research, and program initiatives.
Challenges of a New Century
A message from David Ward, President, American Council on Education
The story of higher education in the United States over the past half-century is one of extraordinary achievement. After World War II, America’s colleges and universities made revolutionary strides—providing successive generations of learners with greater access to education, fostering research and innovation that fueled unparalleled economic growth and scientific development, and raising our higher education system to global preeminence. The last century, however, ended on an uncertain note for higher education, with diminishing state investment, growing criticism of management approaches and high tuition costs, escalating regulatory burdens, and demands for new measures and methods of accountability. The 1990s also introduced unprecedented technological advances (along with their high capital and operating costs) and brought competition from for-profit providers into the learning community. The increased movement of faculty members and students across international boundaries, along with the export of more educational programs and services, has broadened the reach of colleges and universities even as it has generated a new set of complex issues for them.In the face of these challenges, many schools—whether public or private, large or small, non-profit or for-profit—will confront the issue of preserving an appropriate degree of academic breadth as they identify and market their unique niche. Some colleges and universities will continue to provide a traditional, comprehensive program of undergraduate and graduate studies. Others will choose to sharpen the distinctiveness and focus of their offerings, with the conviction that specificity of mission will be a source of strength in meeting the needs of a diverse community of learners. As institutions promote their individuality and autonomy, they will also need to enter into a wide array of partnerships and strategic alliances to maximize their effectiveness and quality.Today’s college president must balance all these complex and sometimes conflicting demands. The challenge for ACE is to help presidents in this task by providing timely and relevant information, programs, and services. At the same time, ACE will need to intensify its representation of the entire higher education community to sustain this community’s ability to serve the public good. ACE sees these challenges as opportunities; taking advantage of them will depend in significant measure on ACE serving as a unifying voice, a principled advocate, and an essential resource for colleges and universities.