Abstract

These studies of Catholic higher education reflect the current passion for self-examination and self-criticism through social surveys in the United States. The main terms of reference are the American norms which claim to be religiously neutral; the treatment of the problems confronting Catholic education solely in the context of American society, is reflected in the absence of references in the footnotes or bibliographies to the relevant European literature. The main focus is on the shape and quality of undergraduate education, though the research findings and the issues discussed have implications for the whole range of Catholic education from parochial primary schools to research-centred schools of graduate studies. Most of the research projects on which the conclusions are based were designed in the late ‘fifties and reflect that era’s preoccupation with the nature of the Authoritarian Personality and the relationship between closed minds and firmly held belief-systems, a preoccupation to which the ‘brain washing’ techniques used in Korea and the power of MacCarthyism doubtless contributed. In Catholic circles Monsignor Tracy Ellis’s criticism of the poor standard of scholarship within the colleges and the poverty of the Catholic contribution to American intellectual life made a remarkable impact.