Askwith Education Forum The Real World of College Authors Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner discuss finding the purpose in education in a complex world Posted May 1, 2023 By News editor Higher Education Leadership What is the purpose of higher education? What are its goals, its promises, and its outcomes — and how have those changed over time, for better or worse? Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner — authors of The Real World of College: What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be — talked to more than 2,000 students, parents, young alumni, job recruiters, and college administrators across multiple U.S. institutions. What they learned from students and other stakeholders is often surprising, revealing the larger challenges and dilemmas facing higher education today. Join Biddy Martin, the former president of Amherst College and a president-in-residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in conversation with Fischman and Gardner as they lean into their findings about contemporary college life. In community with the Askwith Education Forum audience, they’ll explore possibilities for reconnecting American postsecondary education to its larger intellectual and social mission.SpeakersWendy FischmanProject Director of Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of EducationHoward GardnerHobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of EducationHostBiddy MartinPresident-in-Residence, Harvard Graduate School of Education; president emeritus, Amherst College Askwith Education Forum Bringing innovators and influential leaders to the Harvard Graduate School of Education Explore All Articles Related Articles Askwith Education Forum Askwith Education Forum Details Impact of Wealth on College Admissions An eye-opening presentation sheds new light on elite admissions practices in higher education News McLaughlin Honored with Renamed Presidents-in-Residence Program The permanently endowed program, which the longtime faculty member founded in 2001, will now bear her name Education Now Mental Health and Wellness at College Today A discussion on higher education and the mental health and wellness challenges that colleges are facing — and what student support should look like now, as pandemic impacts continue.