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Universities at War
by Thomas Docherty"Docherty is not only is a brilliant critic of those forces that would like to transform higher education into an extension of the market-place... he is also a man of great moral and civic courage, who under intense pressure from the punishing neoliberal state has risked a great deal to remind us that higher education is a civic institution crucial to creating the formative cultures necessary for a democracy to survive, if not flourish." - Henry Giroux, McMasters University "Docherty engages with the secular university in its present crisis, reflecting on its origins and on its role in the future of democracy. He tackles the urgent issue of inequality with a compelling denunciation of the ways of entrenched privilege; he offers a view of governance and representation from the perspective of those who are silenced; and exposes the fundamental damage done to thought by management-speak. Docherty is moral, passionate and committed and this is a fierce and important book." - Mary Margaret McCabe, King's College London There is a war on for the future of the university worldwide. The stakes are high, and they reach deep into our social condition. On one side are self-proclaimed modernisers who view the institution as vital to national economic success. Here the university is a servant of the national economy in the context of globalization, its driving principles of private and personal enrichment necessary conditions of ‘progress’ and modernity. Others see this as a radical impoverishment of the university’s capacities to extend human possibilities and freedoms, to seek earnestly for social justice, and to participate in the endless need for the extension of democracy. This book analyses the former position, and argues for the necessity of taking sides with the latter. It does so with a sense of urgency, because the market fundamentalists are on the march. The fundamental war that is being fought is not just for scholars, but for a better – more democratic, more just, more emancipatory – form of life. Choose sides.
Universities at War (PDF)
by Thomas Docherty"Docherty is not only is a brilliant critic of those forces that would like to transform higher education into an extension of the market-place... he is also a man of great moral and civic courage, who under intense pressure from the punishing neoliberal state has risked a great deal to remind us that higher education is a civic institution crucial to creating the formative cultures necessary for a democracy to survive, if not flourish." - Henry Giroux, McMasters University "Docherty engages with the secular university in its present crisis, reflecting on its origins and on its role in the future of democracy. He tackles the urgent issue of inequality with a compelling denunciation of the ways of entrenched privilege; he offers a view of governance and representation from the perspective of those who are silenced; and exposes the fundamental damage done to thought by management-speak. Docherty is moral, passionate and committed and this is a fierce and important book." - Mary Margaret McCabe, King's College London There is a war on for the future of the university worldwide. The stakes are high, and they reach deep into our social condition. On one side are self-proclaimed modernisers who view the institution as vital to national economic success. Here the university is a servant of the national economy in the context of globalization, its driving principles of private and personal enrichment necessary conditions of ‘progress’ and modernity. Others see this as a radical impoverishment of the university’s capacities to extend human possibilities and freedoms, to seek earnestly for social justice, and to participate in the endless need for the extension of democracy. This book analyses the former position, and argues for the necessity of taking sides with the latter. It does so with a sense of urgency, because the market fundamentalists are on the march. The fundamental war that is being fought is not just for scholars, but for a better – more democratic, more just, more emancipatory – form of life. Choose sides.
Universities, Disruptive Technologies, and Continuity in Higher Education: The Impact of Information Revolutions
by Gavin MoodieThis book seeks to understand the effects of the current information revolution on universities by examining the effects of two previous information revolutions: Gutenberg’s invention and proof of printing in 1450 and the Scientific Revolution from the mid- fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century. Moodie reviews significant changes since the early modern period in universities’ students, libraries, curriculum, pedagogy, lectures, assessment, research, and the dissemination of these changes across the globe. He argues that significant changes in the transmission and dissemination of disciplinary knowledge are shaped by the interaction of three factors: financial, technological, and physical resources; the nature, structure and level of knowledge; and the methods available for managing knowledge.
Universities, Employability and Human Development
by Melanie Walker Samuel FongwaThe book makes a significant contribution to critical higher education studies, specifically to graduate employability research and to capabilities and education research. The book moves beyond the simplistic conception of alleged 'gaps' in graduate skills and 'mismatches' between employers and universities, and instead provides an innovative multi-dimensional and intersectional human capabilities conceptualisation of graduate employability. The book challenges an individualised notion of employability, instead locating employability issues in social and economic conditions, and argues that employability choices cannot be divorced from inequality. Qualitative and quantitative data from multiple case-study universities in South Africa are used to explore the perceptions and experiences of diverse students, lecturers, support officers and employers, regarding what each university is doing, or should be doing, to enhance graduate economic opportunities and contribute to inclusive development. The book will be highly relevant to students, scholars and researchers in the fields of education and sociology, particularly those with an interest in graduate employability.
Universities in Arab Countries: Underpinning the Transition to a Peaceful and Prosperous Future
by Adnan Badran Elias Baydoun John R. HillmanThis book provides an overview of the current state of universities in the Arab world, and how they have the potential to transform society to raise the quality of life and stimulate wealth. The main themes progress from general to the specific. Each chapter providing an overview followed by factual analysis and options for the way forward. All of the major challenges facing universities in general are addressed with reference to issues of particular importance in the Arab Region. The challenges faced include: the need to accommodate a social model of life-long learning; the desire for institutional autonomy while interacting with governments; the availability of open-access online courses and distance learning. Arab universities are diverse, ranging from those entirely state-controlled and funded, to wholly independent private universities. The quality of governmental oversight is also variable, and some institutions are clearly unworthy of the appellation ‘university’. The book comprises of 20 chapters authored by senior academics with a wide international experience and a commitment to assisting the improvement of Arab higher educational and research communities.
Universities in Change: Managing Higher Education Institutions in the Age of Globalization (Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management)
by Andreas Altmann and Bernd EbersbergerUniversities find themselves in dynamic change. They are confronted with growing expectations from their stakeholders, increasing international competition, and new technological challenges. Featuring insights and in-depth case studies from leading researchers and university decision makers from around the world, this book argues that institutions of higher education, in order to be successful, have to actively reflect on circumstances, visions, and strategies to master the future. Drawing from their experiences across a diverse array of institutions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, the authors explore the pressures on today’s universities and the opportunities for excelling in the contest for resources. They discuss operational issues, such as strategic management, IT governance, leadership development, and entrepreneurial culture, and broader concerns, such as the roles and responsibilities of universities in promoting technology transfer and economic and social development. The result is a resource that not only reveals and analyzes universities from an organizational perspective, but presents best practice models and concrete inspiration for management and policymaking.
Universities in Crisis: Academic Professionalism in Uncertain Times
by Eric Lybeck and Catherine O’ConnellThis book goes beyond now-familiar analyses of 'neoliberal governmentality' which tend to characterise academics as passive subjects or as 'strategic actors', drawing on and cynically exploiting metrics as a form of capital exchangeable across different fields. Instead, Universities in Crisis draws on newer paradigms by drawing on processual, post-critical and phenomenological approaches that leave room for new spaces of negotiation – discursive and practical – for understanding and advancing academic professionalism in this rapidly changing context.Contributors reflect various manifestations of the changing political and public climate, as well as the unease that surrounds contemporary debates which position the academy in troubling ways. Unifying concepts such as academic work, jurisdiction and transdisciplinarity are deployed to transcend functional divisions within and between academics, administrators, managers and students. Drawing on these theoretical and conceptual resources, contributors engage in critical consideration of whether the potential for 'push back' lies both in re-emphasising the specialness of academic professionalism and in defining the commonalities with other professional groups of knowledge workers.The book offers an unflinching analysis on the conditions which frame the darker side of professionalism and which are associated with increased precarity and reduced autonomy. The contributors explore the dilemmas, challenges and possibilities of professionalism for both early career academics and senior academic leaders.
Universities in Crisis: Academic Professionalism in Uncertain Times
This book goes beyond now-familiar analyses of 'neoliberal governmentality' which tend to characterise academics as passive subjects or as 'strategic actors', drawing on and cynically exploiting metrics as a form of capital exchangeable across different fields. Instead, Universities in Crisis draws on newer paradigms by drawing on processual, post-critical and phenomenological approaches that leave room for new spaces of negotiation – discursive and practical – for understanding and advancing academic professionalism in this rapidly changing context.Contributors reflect various manifestations of the changing political and public climate, as well as the unease that surrounds contemporary debates which position the academy in troubling ways. Unifying concepts such as academic work, jurisdiction and transdisciplinarity are deployed to transcend functional divisions within and between academics, administrators, managers and students. Drawing on these theoretical and conceptual resources, contributors engage in critical consideration of whether the potential for 'push back' lies both in re-emphasising the specialness of academic professionalism and in defining the commonalities with other professional groups of knowledge workers.The book offers an unflinching analysis on the conditions which frame the darker side of professionalism and which are associated with increased precarity and reduced autonomy. The contributors explore the dilemmas, challenges and possibilities of professionalism for both early career academics and senior academic leaders.
Universities in the Flux of Time: An exploration of time and temporality in university life
by Paul Gibbs Oili-Helena Ylijoki Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela Ronald BarnettHigher education and the institution of the university exist in time, their essential nature now continually subject to change: change in students, in knowledge, in structure and in their own communities and those they service. These changes are accompanied by a quickening of time, leading to a heightened intensity of academic life. Yet the nature of time in all the contemporary work on the university has been largely overlooked. This is an important omission and Universities in the Flux of Time has gathered leading academics whose contributions to the volume raise a debate as to the influence and use of time in the university. They do this in an exploration of how these changes are perceived in higher education and how these affect its temporality from local, national and global perspectives. By dealing with the time within the university, the book opens new spaces for the development of the university and civic society. The book develops an interdisciplinary understanding of the temporal issues of engaging with the past, present and future of higher education and its institutions, through consideration of the increased speed demanded for the production of able students and innovative research, to the accountability pressures from central governments and commerce. Reflecting on these issues in the higher education sector, Universities in the Flux of Time is split into three parts, with each one addressing time and its multiple relationships with the university: Past, present and future Knowledge and time Living with time This volume will provide essential reading for those on higher education studies courses as well as a wider audience of managers, practitioners, policy makers, academics and students and from many disciplinary perspectives including sociology, organisation studies, social psychology and the philosophy of education.
Universities in the Flux of Time: An exploration of time and temporality in university life
by Paul Gibbs Oili-Helena Ylijoki Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela Ronald BarnettHigher education and the institution of the university exist in time, their essential nature now continually subject to change: change in students, in knowledge, in structure and in their own communities and those they service. These changes are accompanied by a quickening of time, leading to a heightened intensity of academic life. Yet the nature of time in all the contemporary work on the university has been largely overlooked. This is an important omission and Universities in the Flux of Time has gathered leading academics whose contributions to the volume raise a debate as to the influence and use of time in the university. They do this in an exploration of how these changes are perceived in higher education and how these affect its temporality from local, national and global perspectives. By dealing with the time within the university, the book opens new spaces for the development of the university and civic society. The book develops an interdisciplinary understanding of the temporal issues of engaging with the past, present and future of higher education and its institutions, through consideration of the increased speed demanded for the production of able students and innovative research, to the accountability pressures from central governments and commerce. Reflecting on these issues in the higher education sector, Universities in the Flux of Time is split into three parts, with each one addressing time and its multiple relationships with the university: Past, present and future Knowledge and time Living with time This volume will provide essential reading for those on higher education studies courses as well as a wider audience of managers, practitioners, policy makers, academics and students and from many disciplinary perspectives including sociology, organisation studies, social psychology and the philosophy of education.
Universities in the Knowledge Economy: Higher education organisation and global change (International Studies in Higher Education)
by Paul TempleUniversities are fundamental to the contemporary knowledge economy. They directly and indirectly support economic growth in both developing and advanced economies. In addition to their traditional teaching and research functions, they often also have important roles in supporting regional development and urban regeneration, as well as involvement in fostering international relations, in , cultural developments and in enhancing social cohesion. While higher education institutions in many countries are often assigned key roles in economic and social policy prescriptions, exactly what those roles are and how they should be carried out are often unclear. Universities and the Knowledge Economy provides a much-needed theoretical and empirical analysis of these functions, taking a critical look at the complex connections between knowledge creation, the knowledge economy, and higher education today. This volume: Brings together work on these topics by international experts, reporting and analysing recent policy developments and research Shows the significance of the university’s role in the knowledge economy, and the precise roles that it can play. Presents a range of studies showing how universities interact with other knowledge producers and users, and how these interactions can be managed to achieve the most effective applications of knowledge Universities are multi-faceted institutions that everywhere are accorded special status. Universities and the Knowledge Economy examines how these institutions carry our knowledge production and application, and how their distinctive characters affect what they do. . This title is of both intellectual and operational relevance, and would be suitable for those interested in higher education and policy and practice, and in the theory of higher education. Paul Temple is Reader in Higher Education Management and Co-Director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.
Universities in the Knowledge Economy: Higher education organisation and global change (International Studies in Higher Education)
by Paul TempleUniversities are fundamental to the contemporary knowledge economy. They directly and indirectly support economic growth in both developing and advanced economies. In addition to their traditional teaching and research functions, they often also have important roles in supporting regional development and urban regeneration, as well as involvement in fostering international relations, in , cultural developments and in enhancing social cohesion. While higher education institutions in many countries are often assigned key roles in economic and social policy prescriptions, exactly what those roles are and how they should be carried out are often unclear. Universities and the Knowledge Economy provides a much-needed theoretical and empirical analysis of these functions, taking a critical look at the complex connections between knowledge creation, the knowledge economy, and higher education today. This volume: Brings together work on these topics by international experts, reporting and analysing recent policy developments and research Shows the significance of the university’s role in the knowledge economy, and the precise roles that it can play. Presents a range of studies showing how universities interact with other knowledge producers and users, and how these interactions can be managed to achieve the most effective applications of knowledge Universities are multi-faceted institutions that everywhere are accorded special status. Universities and the Knowledge Economy examines how these institutions carry our knowledge production and application, and how their distinctive characters affect what they do. . This title is of both intellectual and operational relevance, and would be suitable for those interested in higher education and policy and practice, and in the theory of higher education. Paul Temple is Reader in Higher Education Management and Co-Director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.
Universities in the Knowledge Society: The Nexus of National Systems of Innovation and Higher Education (The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective #22)
by Timo Aarrevaara Martin Finkelstein Jisun Jung Glen A. JonesThis book explores the complex, multi-faceted relationships between national research and innovation systems and higher education. The transition towards knowledge societies/economies is repositioning the role of the university and transforming the academic profession. The volume provides a foundational introduction to the concepts of knowledge society and knowledge economy, and these concepts ground the detailed case studies of eighteen systems, located across five continents. Each case study was written by a leading expert in that jurisdiction, and provides a critical analysis of the research and development infrastructure, the role of universities, and the implications for the academic profession. The book describes how nations in various geographic regions and at various stages of economic maturity are restructuring their university systems to adapt to the new imperatives, and provides a cross-case analysis identifying common themes and distinctive features. In telling the story of higher education’s on-going global metamorphosis, the contributing authors place current developments in the context of the university’s historic evolution, survey the changing metrics that national governments are adopting to measure university performance, and describe a new international project, the Academic Profession in the Knowledge-based Society [APiKS] that involved a common survey of academics in more than twenty countries to take the pulse of developments “on the ground” while documenting the challenges confronting knowledge workers in the new economy.
Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education
by Derek BokIs everything in a university for sale if the price is right? In this book, one of America's leading educators cautions that the answer is all too often "yes." Taking the first comprehensive look at the growing commercialization of our academic institutions, Derek Bok probes the efforts on campus to profit financially not only from athletics but increasingly, from education and research as well. He shows how such ventures are undermining core academic values and what universities can do to limit the damage. Commercialization has many causes, but it could never have grown to its present state had it not been for the recent, rapid growth of money-making opportunities in a more technologically complex, knowledge-based economy. A brave new world has now emerged in which university presidents, enterprising professors, and even administrative staff can all find seductive opportunities to turn specialized knowledge into profit. Bok argues that universities, faced with these temptations, are jeopardizing their fundamental mission in their eagerness to make money by agreeing to more and more compromises with basic academic values. He discusses the dangers posed by increased secrecy in corporate-funded research, for-profit Internet companies funded by venture capitalists, industry-subsidized educational programs for physicians, conflicts of interest in research on human subjects, and other questionable activities. While entrepreneurial universities may occasionally succeed in the short term, reasons Bok, only those institutions that vigorously uphold academic values, even at the cost of a few lucrative ventures, will win public trust and retain the respect of faculty and students. Candid, evenhanded, and eminently readable, Universities in the Marketplace will be widely debated by all those concerned with the future of higher education in America and beyond.
Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education
by Derek BokIs everything in a university for sale if the price is right? In this book, one of America's leading educators cautions that the answer is all too often "yes." Taking the first comprehensive look at the growing commercialization of our academic institutions, Derek Bok probes the efforts on campus to profit financially not only from athletics but increasingly, from education and research as well. He shows how such ventures are undermining core academic values and what universities can do to limit the damage. Commercialization has many causes, but it could never have grown to its present state had it not been for the recent, rapid growth of money-making opportunities in a more technologically complex, knowledge-based economy. A brave new world has now emerged in which university presidents, enterprising professors, and even administrative staff can all find seductive opportunities to turn specialized knowledge into profit. Bok argues that universities, faced with these temptations, are jeopardizing their fundamental mission in their eagerness to make money by agreeing to more and more compromises with basic academic values. He discusses the dangers posed by increased secrecy in corporate-funded research, for-profit Internet companies funded by venture capitalists, industry-subsidized educational programs for physicians, conflicts of interest in research on human subjects, and other questionable activities. While entrepreneurial universities may occasionally succeed in the short term, reasons Bok, only those institutions that vigorously uphold academic values, even at the cost of a few lucrative ventures, will win public trust and retain the respect of faculty and students. Candid, evenhanded, and eminently readable, Universities in the Marketplace will be widely debated by all those concerned with the future of higher education in America and beyond.
Universities in the National Innovation Systems: Experiences from the Asia-Pacific
by V. V. KrishnaThis volume looks at the role of universities in the National Innovation Systems in economies of the Asia Pacific. It examines the tremendous growth of human and knowledge capital made possible by teaching and research excellence in major universities, along with how universities are being re-positioned as frontiers of innovation in the National Systems of Innovation. The chapters assess the impact of globalisation and innovation together with the emergence of ‘new’ knowledge sites extended to the Asia Pacific region. With contributions by experts and academics and key case studies, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers in higher education, development studies, public policy, economics, business and resource management, Asian studies as well as policymakers.
Universities in the National Innovation Systems: Experiences from the Asia-Pacific
by V. V. KrishnaThis volume looks at the role of universities in the National Innovation Systems in economies of the Asia Pacific. It examines the tremendous growth of human and knowledge capital made possible by teaching and research excellence in major universities, along with how universities are being re-positioned as frontiers of innovation in the National Systems of Innovation. The chapters assess the impact of globalisation and innovation together with the emergence of ‘new’ knowledge sites extended to the Asia Pacific region. With contributions by experts and academics and key case studies, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers in higher education, development studies, public policy, economics, business and resource management, Asian studies as well as policymakers.
Universities in the Neoliberal Era: Academic Cultures and Critical Perspectives (Palgrave Critical University Studies)
by Hakan Ergül Simten CoşarThis book explores the question of how and to what extent the ongoing neoliberal transformation of higher education exerts influence on the university and academic everyday life in different societies. By listening to, observing, and comparing the critical voices of academics and students – the voices that matter – the book reviews first hand experiences from different societies and university cultures located within the European and semi-Mediterranean landscape, including the Czech Republic, Morocco, Turkey, and United Kingdom. By bringing together original fieldworks combining the structural analysis of the neoliberal shift with the academic individual’s repositioning, struggle and response, the book documents a number of similarities and differences experienced in different academic cultures. The chapters present a rich variety of subjects, including academic labor, academic identity and knowledge production, (un)employment, (in)equality, academic feminism, oppression and resistance from ethnographic, political and sociological perspectives. This timely and insightful volume will appeal to researchers, academics, students and advocates of academic freedom from different disciplines and academic cultures whose agendas prioritize higher education policies, university systems, academic production and academic labor.
Universities in the Networked Society: Cultural Diversity and Digital Competences in Learning Communities (Critical Studies of Education #10)
by Piet Kommers Eugenia Smyrnova-Trybulska Nataliia Morze Josef MalachThis book presents research on the effects and effectiveness of ICT applications in lifelong learning in relation to digital competences of educators. It sketches recent and future evolutions in higher education, explores whether universities have adjusted policies and business models in line with the rapid development of ICT technologies, and analyses whether the adjustments made are merely cosmetic or truly future-proof. The book specifically deals with such topics as digital competencies of teaching staff, the development and implementation of MOOCs and other E-learning tools, virtual classrooms, online tutoring, and collaborative learning. It presents case studies of innovative master’s programmes, projects and methods, and processes of standardization and validation used in various countries as illustrations. The book explains the rapid transition of the knowledge society to the "society of global competence" and shows the necessity of an active implementation of innovative forms and effective methods of education, and above all, distance learning at all levels of education.
The Universities in the Nineteenth Century (Routledge Library Editions: Education 1800-1926)
by Michael SandersonThis title, first published in 1975, analyses the ways in which developments in Victorian universities have shaped both the structure and the assumptions of British higher education in the twentieth century. No period of British higher education has been more full of change nor so rooted in fundamental debate than the second half of the nineteenth century. Its lasting impact makes it crucial for an understanding both of this period of Victorian social history and of the contemporary system of higher education in Britain. This title will be of interest to students of history and education.
The Universities in the Nineteenth Century (Routledge Library Editions: Education 1800-1926)
by Michael SandersonThis title, first published in 1975, analyses the ways in which developments in Victorian universities have shaped both the structure and the assumptions of British higher education in the twentieth century. No period of British higher education has been more full of change nor so rooted in fundamental debate than the second half of the nineteenth century. Its lasting impact makes it crucial for an understanding both of this period of Victorian social history and of the contemporary system of higher education in Britain. This title will be of interest to students of history and education.
Universities in Times of Crisis and Disruption: Dislocated Complexity (Routledge Research in Higher Education)
by Lorraine Ling Kay LivingstonThis book examines the role and future of universities in times of chronic disruption and crisis – presented via an original conceptual framework which the authors term ‘Dislocated Complexity’ – and discusses how to move forward in the face of severely disrupted social, political, economic and environment contexts. Demonstrating how global crises, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, have dramatically dislocated and disrupted all contexts of society, the authors use this framework of Dislocated Complexity to propose a set of characteristics and values that underpin roles for universities, considering the future of universities with regards to teaching and learning, research, management and leadership, workforce change, policymaking and engagement. Novel, innovative concepts and theoretical perspectives are brought to the analysis of futures, roles and activities of universities by the authors, such as ‘Unscripted Agency’, ‘Clashing -ologies’, ‘Emanant Trust’ and ‘Dislocated Complexity Leadership Theory’. Ultimately calling for a rethink of university futures, this timely book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of higher education research and teaching and learning. It will also be of interest to university managers, educational policy makers, and those who are ‘hidden’ or informal educators in the community.
Universities in Times of Crisis and Disruption: Dislocated Complexity (Routledge Research in Higher Education)
by Lorraine Ling Kay LivingstonThis book examines the role and future of universities in times of chronic disruption and crisis – presented via an original conceptual framework which the authors term ‘Dislocated Complexity’ – and discusses how to move forward in the face of severely disrupted social, political, economic and environment contexts. Demonstrating how global crises, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, have dramatically dislocated and disrupted all contexts of society, the authors use this framework of Dislocated Complexity to propose a set of characteristics and values that underpin roles for universities, considering the future of universities with regards to teaching and learning, research, management and leadership, workforce change, policymaking and engagement. Novel, innovative concepts and theoretical perspectives are brought to the analysis of futures, roles and activities of universities by the authors, such as ‘Unscripted Agency’, ‘Clashing -ologies’, ‘Emanant Trust’ and ‘Dislocated Complexity Leadership Theory’. Ultimately calling for a rethink of university futures, this timely book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of higher education research and teaching and learning. It will also be of interest to university managers, educational policy makers, and those who are ‘hidden’ or informal educators in the community.
Universities in Transition: The Changing Role and Challenges for Academic Institutions (Insight and Innovation in International Development)
by Bo Göransson and Claes BrundeniusGlobalization, the information age, and the rise of the knowledge-based economy are significantly transforming the way we acquire, disseminate, and transform knowledge. And, as a result, knowledge production is becoming closer and more directly linked to economic competitiveness. This evolution is also putting new and urgent demands on academic institutions to adjust to the changing needs of society and economy. In particular, there is growing pressure on the institutions of higher education and research in developed economies to find and affirm their new role in the national innovation system. Their counterparts in developing economies need to define their role in supporting emerging structures of the innovation system. This book examines the role of universities and national research institutes in social and economic development processes. Featuring contributions that showcase initiatives and innovations from around the world, including China, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Western Europe, it offers timely insight that will be of interest to policymakers, university administrators, economic and social leaders, and researchers alike.
The Universities of the Italian Renaissance
by Paul F. GrendlerItalian Renaissance universities were Europe's intellectual leaders in humanistic studies, law, medicine, philosophy, and science. Employing some of the foremost scholars of the time—including Pietro Pomponazzi, Andreas Vesalius, and Galileo Galilei—the Italian Renaissance university was the prototype of today's research university. This is the first book in any language to offer a comprehensive study of this most influential institution.In this magisterial study, noted scholar Paul F. Grendler offers a detailed and authoritative account of the universities of Renaissance Italy. Beginning with brief narratives of the origins and development of each university, Grendler explores such topics as the number of professors and their distribution by discipline, student enrollment (some estimates are the first attempted), famous faculty members, budget and salaries, and relations with civil authority. He discusses the timetable of lectures, student living, foreign students, the road to the doctorate, and the impact of the Counter Reformation. He shows in detail how humanism changed research and teaching, producing the medical Renaissance of anatomy and medical botany, new approaches to Aristotle, and mathematical innovation. Universities responded by creating new professorships and suppressing older ones. The book concludes with the decline of Italian universities, as internal abuses and external threats—including increased student violence and competition from religious schools—ended Italy's educational leadership in the seventeenth century.