The need for diversity in higher education.

Full Abstract

The author states that there is a need in all higher education, including the health professions, for racial, ethnic, and other kinds of diversity, and describes two court cases involving the University of Michigan's undergraduate and law school affirmative action admission policies. The outcomes of these cases will profoundly affect the quality of U.S. higher education, professional education, and graduate education. Affirmative action is one of the tools that many universities use to ensure the kind of comprehensively diverse student body that helps teach students to participate fully in this country's heterogeneous democracy and the global economy. Students are exposed to classmates with different life experiences, their prior assumptions are challenged, and they discover what they and their classmates have in common. And a variety of Fortune 500 corporations state that employees and managers who graduated from institutions with diverse student bodies demonstrate a variety of key skills that are crucial in the U.S. workplace. The author discusses why "colorblind" and "socioeconomically oriented" admission policies do not work and that they have only a tiny effect on white students' chances of acceptance. Until K-12 education is greatly improved for minorities, affirmative action is needed to give a "leg up" to students who might not otherwise be admitted but who can do the academic work. In medical education, there is a special urgency for diversity, since it is known that minority physicians are more likely to practice in areas where there are high concentrations of minorities.

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Author information

Author/s: Bollinger, Lee C (LC);

Affiliation: Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges (Acad Med), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-May; vol 78 (issue 5) : pp 431-6

Dates: Created 2003/05/13; Completed 2003/06/19; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12742776, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Michigan
Minority Groups
Prejudice
School Admission Criteria
Universities - legislation & jurisprudence

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