Ideally, universities are centers of learning, in which great researchers dispassionately search for truth, no matter how unpopular those truths must be. The marketplace of ideas assures that truth wins out against bias and prejudice. Yet, many people worry that there's rot in the heart of the
higher education business.
In Cracks in the Ivory Tower, libertarian scholars Jason Brennan and Philip Magness reveal the problems are even worse than anyone suspects. Marshalling an array of data, they systematically show how contemporary American universities fall short of these ideals
and how bad incentives make faculty, administrators, and students act unethically. While universities may at times excel at identifying and calling out injustice outside their gates, Brennan and Magness contend that individuals are primarily guided by self-interest at every level. They find that the
problems are deep and pervasive: most academic marketing and advertising is semi-fraudulent; colleges and individual departments regularly make promises they do not and cannot keep; and most students cheat a little, while many cheat a lot. Trenchant and wide-ranging, they elucidate the many ways in
which faculty and students alike have every incentive to make teaching and learning secondary.
In this revealing exposé, Brennan and Magness bring to light many of the ethical problems universities, faculties, and students currently face. In turn, they reshape our understanding of how
such high-powered institutions run their business.
1. Neither Gremlins nor Poltergeists
2. What the Academics Really Want
3. Why Most Academic Advertising Is Immoral Bullshit
4. On Reading Entrails and Student Evaluations
5. Grades: Communication Breakdown
6. When Moral Language as a Cover for Self-Interest
7. The Gen Ed
Hustle
8. Why Universities Produce Too Many PhDs
9. Cheaters, Cheaters Everywhere
10. Three Big Myths about What's Plaguing Higher Ed
11. Answering the Taxpayers
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Jason Brennan is the Flanagan Family Professor at Georgetown University. He is the author of ten books, including When All Else Fails and In Defense of Openness.
Phillip Magness is Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Berry College. He is an economic historian, specializing
in long term economic and political trends in the United States. He is also the author of two books and over a dozen scholarly articles on a diverse array of topics, including the economics of slavery, the history of international trade, federal tax policy, economic inequality, and the economic
dimensions of higher education.
Making Sense in the Social Sciences - Margot Northey, Lorne Tepperman and Patrizia Albanese
The Road Ahead for America's Colleges and Universities - Robert B. Archibald and David H. Feldman
