Comparative Higher Education

This book can serve as valuable resource for educational practitioners in higher education insofar as it provides them with an enhanced awareness of strategies that are being used to manage problems commonly faced in multiple educational settings.

Tremendous changes are affecting the structure and funding of higher education in many countries. This volume attempts to identify and analyze the principles, structural features and modes of work of the different higher education policies operating in eleven countries, as well as their commonalities and differences in the light of both general international trends and country-specific factors. In order to gather the relevant information for the project, national correspondents were provided with an overarching framework to guide them in their work and to ensure maximum comparability of the resulting reports. Each country report is broken down into four sections: the structure and goals of higher education systems; authority in the system; higher education policy; and the impact of each on institutional governance and management. The final chapter draws together the general trends which have emerged: a move towards less state control; a strengthening of institutional autonomy and increased governance; competition between institutions; privatization of funding; greater market orientation and growing institutional accountability for quality and service.

Higher education is increasingly international. The issues that affect universities in one country are important globally. There are a myriad of links among academic systems worldwide. Comparative Higher Education is the first book to systematically explore many of the most important implications of the globalization of higher education. It explores the links among universities, including foreign students and scholars, the impact of the Western higher education idea on universities throughout the world, and especially the current importance of American academic ideas worldwide, and the patterns of inequality among academic systems. Teachers and students are at the heart of the academic systems. Comparative Higher Education focuses on professors and students-especially the political involvement of both professors and students-and seeks to understand their roles in a comparative framework. The book concludes with a discussion of higher education development in the newly industrializing countries. These Pacific Rim nations are examples of how higher education has been used in the process of development. Comparative Higher Education reflects more than three decades of research in the field, and places key elements in the globalization of higher education in a useful framework. Worldwide examples are used to illustrate analyses of such key topics as international exchange, future trends in university development, the complex relationships among academic systems in the industrialized and developing countries, and related issues.

Drawing together the implications of studies of Sweden, Norway and England in a set of comparative analyses, the authors assess the reforms of the higher education systems on three distinct levels, the state, the institution and the individual. The book examines changes in government policy, in the leadership and management of higher education institutions and the impact on academic identities and the academic profession.

Provides an original and challenging contribution to contemporary debates on the civic purpose of higher education, exploring its manifestations through practices of teaching and research. Offers critical perspectives on the role of higher education institutions in terms of realizing civic missions, especially in current global market conditions.

In recent years most western democracies have experienced a shift from elite to mass higher education, with the United States leading the way. This text compares the experience of this very important social change within different nation states. Whilst recognising the critical global economic forces that appear to explain the international nature of the change, it sees the issues as rooted within different national traditions. There is a particular focus upon the discourse of access, especially the political discourse. The book addresses questions such as: How has expansion been explained? Has expansion been generated by state intervention or by a combination of economic and social forces? What are the forms of political intervention? What points of agreement and conflict are generated within the wider society by expanding access? Leading academic experts explore the ways in which different systems of higher education have accommodated mass access, constructing comparative pictures and comparative interpretations and lessons in an accessible and informative style. This book should be critical reading for students in education, sociology and politics, as well as policy-makers and academics.

Higher education systems around the world are undergoing fundamental change and reform due to external pressures—including internationalization of higher education, increased international competition for students, less reliance on public funding, and calls to create greater access opportunities for citizens. How are higher education systems evolving structurally as a result of these and other pressures? In light of these changes, how can higher education be a positive force for democratizing societies? This book examines the emerging trends taking place in higher education systems around the world, focusing on the most salient political and social forces that underlie these trends. Each chapter provides a case study of a country, exploring its cultural and political history, the political and social developments that have affected its higher education system, and the result of these changes on the higher education system. In a fast-changing, knowledge-intensive, democratic society, Democratizing Higher Education explores how higher education systems can be developed to provide access, affordability, participation, and quality life-long learning for all.