<p>"the higher education community has brought this on themselves as so much of society distrusts those in academia. I haven't seen any recent polls, but I remember some showing that the broad American public rate academics about as highly as they rate Congress and Wall Street, ie, not well."</p>
<p>And you conclude from this that there's something wrong with academia? It's Congress's job to do the people's bidding. It is decidedly NOT the job of academics to please the general public, be popular, etc. Maybe academics are doing a crummy job, but unpopularity with the general public tells us nothing about that possibility one way or the other.</p>
<p>I think its a great idea, provided an appropriate exam or set of exams is developed. </p>
<p>Maybe I am just rationalizing my positiveness, because I know that our accreditation bodies are pushing schools definitely in this direction. This is only the beginning of the tip of the iceberg, sure to grow over time. </p>
<p>I don't believe GRE provides what they woudl be looking for (as it isn't tapping into knowledge learned or the ability to generalize that knowledge but instead, like most selection tools, is an aptitude test). The subject tests are a bit better in that regard, but are too weak a benchmark as they surely don't require a degree in a subject.</p>