Higher Education In The New Century

This new edition explores current issues of central importance to the academy: leadership, accountability, access, finance, technology, academic freedom, the canon, governance, and race. Chapters also deal with key constituencies -- students and faculty -- in the context of a changing academic environment.

Higher education worldwide faces similar challenges—how to cope with globalization, the provision of access to underserved populations, and others.

"Higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean has expanded dramatically in the past 15 years, as the average gross enrollment rate has more than doubled, and many new institutions and programs have been opened. Although higher education access has become more equitable, and higher education supply has become more varied, many of the 'new' students in the system are, on average, less academically ready than are their more advantaged counterparts. Furthermore, only half of higher education students, on average, complete their degree, and labor market returns to higher education vary greatly across institutions and programs. Thus, higher education is at a crossroads today. Given the region's urgency to raise productivity in a low-growth, fiscally constrained environment, going past this crossroads requires the formation of skilled human capital fast and efficiently. 'At a Crossroads: Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean' contributes to the discussion by studying quality, variety, and equity of higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean. The book presents comprehensive evidence on the recent higher education expansion and evolution of higher education labor market returns. Using novel data and state-of-the-art methods, it studies demand and supply drivers of the recent expansion. It investigates the behavior of institutions and students and explores the unintended consequences of large-scale higher education policies. Framing the analysis are the singular characteristics of the higher education market and the market segmentation induced by the variety of students and institutions in the system. At this crossroads, a role emerges for incentives, information, accountability, and choice."

The authors explain how various state governance structures influence the way priorities for higher education are established. Based on a study conducted by the California Higher Education Policy Center, now The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, this study examines whether existing state higher education structures are adequate given the economic, social, and technological challenges of the 1990s and the first decades of the 21st century. The study also explored whether these structures are prepared to handle the changing student population as well as what appears to be an unprecedented period of increased demand for higher education in some states. The book contains comparative case studies of higher education systems in seven large and diverse states: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Texas.

"This book contains 14 original chapters on the changing face of higher education in the 21st century. This book explores some of the latest possibilities and developments in the 21st century higher education through different context specific discussions on the contours of ODL, use of Mobile Learning, game based learning, integration of Artificial Intelligence in education and so forth which are indeed some of the latest developments. Fresh and experienced readers will greatly benefit from the chapters in this book as they deal with open education, sustainable education, skill-based education, technology enabled learning, techno pedagogy, inter institutional studies on the prospects of lifelong learning, community and ODL institutions, quality assurance in ODL institutions, education for empowerment and so on which have emerged as the most dominant concepts in recent times. However, more than anything else, this book will help readers consider the relevance of open higher education in a wider context"--

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

University presidents are expected to draw upon their experinces to draft a book suggesting possible futures for higher education. Since my term of o ce ended in 1996, as the new century approached, it was natural to label this assignment as A University for the 21st Century, a book that was awarded the Alice Beeman Award of CASE (the Council on Advancement and Support of Education) in 2001.Although this e ort was heavily in uenced by my experience in serving the University of Michigan as dean, provost, and president during the 1980s and 1990s, I attempted to paint a broader picture of American higher education writ large. Of course universities have a remarkable constancy in roles such as teaching and scholarship, in organizations such as schools, colleges, and departments, and in cultures such as academic freedom and tenure. Indeed, as Clark Kerr has noted in his famous quote:

This 50th volume examines current global trends in higher education, which include the situation of academic faculty, the demand for access, the role of the university in society and its governance, funding trends, and higher education’s international dimensions.