Searching questions are the fashion of the day. In a world where economy reigns, every institution, every activity must justify itself. It is essential that higher education be subjected to the same skeptical analysis as everything else. Such analysis will have an impact on the individual student as well as on the system as a whole.

For the individual student the question of the value of a college education assumes a significance which it has hitherto lacked. Today education involves sacrifice, in greater or less degree, for almost everyone. Until now most Americans have gone to college because it never occurred to them not to; today such luxury cannot be afforded. The question on application blanks for every institution in the country--Why do you want to go to college?"--has at last become a question which every student must honestly face and for which every student must have a valid answer.

For the educational system as a whole the analysis is of equally great importance. Not only must each institution offer its students the means of answering satisfactorily the question posed above. Each educational institution must also justify itself on a broad social scale. The endowment for institutions of higher education in this country runs into billions; the institutions supported by the public drain large sums from the state treasuries. If this vast expenditure is wise--and we believe it is--the education institutions must repay society in the only way they can: by turning out educated men, capable of taking their place as leaders in the life of that society.

Education has too long been taken for granted in America. Democratic theory has enshrined it as an indisputable right; but there is no right without duty. It is the inescapable and solemn task of both institutions and individuals to fulfill that duty.

--From the annual report of the National Student Federation of America.