Why the paradigm of the world-class university is an implausible dream
for most institutions of higher education Universities have become
major actors on the global stage. Yet, as they strive to be
“world-class,” institutions of higher education are shifting away
from their core missions of cultivating democratic citizenship,
fostering critical thinking, and safeguarding academic freedom. In the
contest to raise their national and global profiles, universities are
embracing a new form of utilitarianism, one that favors market power
over academic values. In this book, James Mittelman explains why the
world-class university is an implausible dream for most institutions
and proposes viable alternatives that can help universities thrive in
today’s competitive global environment. Mittelman traces how the
scale, reach, and impact of higher-education institutions expanded
exponentially in the post–World War II era, and how the market-led
educational model became widespread. Drawing on his own groundbreaking
fieldwork, he offers three case studies—the United States, which
exemplifies market-oriented educational globalization; Finland,
representative of the strong public sphere; and Uganda, a postcolonial
country with a historically public but now increasingly private
university system. Mittelman shows that the “world-class” paradigm
is untenable for all but a small group of wealthy, research-intensive
universities, primarily in the global North. Nevertheless,
institutions without substantial material resources and in far
different contexts continue to aspire to world-class stature. An
urgent wake-up call, Implausible Dream argues that universities are
repurposing at the peril of their high principles and recommends
structural reforms that are more practical than the unrealistic
worldwide measures of excellence prevalent today.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781400888085
Publisert
2017
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter