American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century : Social, Political, and Economic Challenges

by Altbach, Philip G.; Berdahl, Robert O.; Gumport, Patricia J.; Altbach, Philip G.

• ISBN13: 9780801858895
• ISBN10: 0801858895
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-11-01
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

America's colleges and universities are social institutions -- embedded in the wider society and subject in various ways to its constraining forces. In American Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century, researchers who share this understanding explore the new realities of higher education and consider its greatest challenges for the next century. Subject to increasing scrutiny by the media and the public, colleges and universities must wrestle with a wide range of issues generated by their various external constituencies. Academic leaders rearrange their curricula to meet demands for multiculturalism. They seek an appropriate response as race-based admissions procedures come under attack. They assess student learning and monitor faculty productivity--while simultaneously responding to calls for the end of tenure and for explanations of why the cost of attending college has risen so dramatically. Using the changing social, political, and economic contexts of colleges and universities as a lens for examining these complex issues, the contributors seek to understand the forces -- whether unique to our era or rooted in the past -- that currently influence higher education and will continue to do so in the next century. Whether discussing finance or technology or academic freedom or the canon, the authors find that relations between academic institutions and their surrounding societies have generally been ambivalent: both involved and withdrawn, servicing and criticizing, needing and being needed. Understanding the complex interplay between institutions and external forces, they conclude, is the key to guiding the endeavors of faculty, students, and administrative leaders alike.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Contexts of American Higher Education	p. 1
The Setting
Patterns in Higher Education Development	p. 15
The Ten Generations of American Higher Education	p. 38
Autonomy and Accountability: Who Controls Academe?	p. 71
Academic Freedom: Past, Present, and Future beyond September 11	p. 91
Challenges Facing Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century	p. 115
External Forces
The Federal Government and Higher Education	p. 163
The States and Higher Education	p. 198
The Legal Environment: The Implementation of Legal Change on Campus	p. 226
The Hidden Hand: External Constituencies and Their Impact	p. 253
The Academic Community
Harsh Realities: The Professoriate Faces a New Century	p. 287
College Students in Changing Contexts	p. 315
The Dilemma of Presidential Leadership	p. 340
Central Issues for the Twenty-First Century
Financing Higher Education: Who Should Pay?	p. 369
Technology and Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges for the New Era	p. 393
Graduate Education and Research: Interdependence and Strain	p. 425
Curriculum in Higher Education: The Historical Roots of Contemporary Issues	p. 462
Markets in Higher Education: Students in the Seventies, Patents in the Eighties, Copyrights in the Nineties	p. 486
Race in Higher Education: Making Meaning of an Elusive Moving Target	p. 517
Contributors	p. 537
Index	p. 543
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