• The next step O Levy wants is the unsealing of college accreditation reports. This will enable the Department of Education to take over the business of ranking colleges and universities. “Accreditation reports — rigorous evaluations, prepared by representatives of peer institutions — include everything students need to know when making decisions about schools, yet the specifics of most reports remain secret,” he says.

What do you and your parents rely on now? It must be U.S. News & World Report rankings. These, says the author, are skewed by colleges to maximize applicant numbers. Numbers improve their selectivity rankings. Opening the acc reports will stop unscrupulous counsellors in their tracks and reduce the number of applications that an aspirant submits.

• Obviously, the biggest improvement must happen in the quality of college applicants. Half of the freshmen at community colleges and a third of freshmen at four-year colleges are academically too weak to do college work successfully. Our average college graduation rates have remained at 60%.

We know the stats: In 2007, more than a third of all research doctorates were awarded to foreigners, and the proportion is far higher in the hard sciences.

The problem/solution is two-fold: our public schools and undergraduate institutions should do a better job in preparing students for college ed. Parents must ensure that their children are academically oriented.

President Obama has said: “As fathers and parents, we’ve got to spend more time with them, and help them with their homework, and replace the video game or the remote control with a book once in a while.”

What do we need? Better teachers, smaller classes and modern ed tools and improved parenting skills. That means assistance to parents while creating better learning experiences for students.

“At a time when it seems we have ever fewer globally competitive industries, American higher education is a brand worth preserving.”