Higher Education is changing - in scope, style, technology, and objectives. This book looks at the impact of information technologies on higher education and the reorganization of universities in more managerial and business directions. The book combines empirical and analytical chapters from scholars on both sides of the Atlantic.

PART I: THE NEW GLOBAL CONTEXT ; 1. The Virtual University? ; 2. Globalizing the Academy ; 3. The University and Modernity: A History of the Present ; 4. The University in the 'Global' Economy ; PART II: PRACTICES AND POLICIES ; 5. Working Through the Work of Making Work Mobile ; 6. The Virtual University: The Learner's Perspective ; 7. New Managerialism: The Manager-Academic and Technologies of Management in Universities--Looking Forward to Virtuality? ; 8. Exporting Management - Neo-Imperialism and Global Consumerism ; 9. Saving the Soul of the University: What is to be Done? ; 10. Commodity and Community: Institutional Design for the Networked University ; PART III: PROSPECTS AND POSSIBILITIES ; 11. Marketizing Higher Education: Neo-Liberal Strategies and Counter Strategies ; 12. Digital Discourses, Online Classes, Electronic Documents: Developing New University Techno-Cultures ; 13. Rehearsal for the Revolution ; 14. Some Consequences of the New Information and Communications Technologies for Higher Education ; Afterword: What Will be the Global Identity of the University?

`The book maybe useful to academics involved in university management roles, to professional managers and strategists in the forefront of education industry as well as to a wider academic community tracing the orientation in the university in transition.' Journal of Documentation, vol. 59 no. 6 `The Virtual University? Knowledge Markets and Management, presents a variety of aspects, features, approaches and achievements in changing university - virtual or global university phenomena.' Journal of Documentation, vol. 59 no. 6

Situates the debate about the future and function of the university in the mainstream of contemporary social analysis Features research from major social analysts in both the US and the UK Goes beyond technology-centred and education policy-focused approaches Analyses changes in higher education within the broad contexts of globalization, the political economy, and historical trends Essential reading for those seeking to understand changes in higher education

Kevin Robins studied at the universities of Sussex, York, and Kent. He is Professor of Communications, Goldsmith's College, University of London. His books include The Technical Fix: Education, Computers, and Industry (1989, with Frank Webster), Into the Image (1996), Times of the Technoculture (1999, with Frank Webster), and Spaces of Identity (1995, with David Morley). Frank Webster was educated at the University of Durham and the London School of Economics. He is Professor of Sociology at City University. He was previously Professor of Sociology in the Department of Cultural Studies and Sociology, University of Birmingham (1999-2002). Recent publications are: Times of the Technoculture (1999, with Kevin Robins), Theories of the Information Society (2002), and Culture and Politics in the Information Age (2001).

Situates the debate about the future and function of the university in the mainstream of contemporary social analysis Features research from major social analysts in both the US and the UK Goes beyond technology-centred and education policy-focused approaches Analyses changes in higher education within the broad contexts of globalization, the political economy, and historical trends Essential reading for those seeking to understand changes in higher education