The Research Mission Of Higher Education Institutions Outside The University Sector

Even if in most countries non-university higher education institutions did not have originally a research mandate, it is well known that in most cases these institutions have progressively developed research activities and, at least in some countries, the State now has recognized the research role of these institutions and provided support and funding. Moreover, in many countries the role of research in polytechnics, ‘fachhochschulen’, ‘hogescholen’, university colleges, etc is on the political agenda. Despite the importance of the issue, there are very few in-depth studies of research in the non-university sector. These studies show that the development of research in these institutions leads to quite complex interactions with universities, both in the sense of convergence (academic drift) and/or of differentiation of a specific research mandate oriented towards the regional economy. Therefore, this book aims to fill this gap by first analysing a number of transversal issues related to the research mission of these institutions. In its second part it gives an overview of the state of the art in eight European countries.

This volume presents recent scholarship on the changing research mission of the university and on the implications of these changes for the university itself. As these papers make clear the leading nations increasingly view the research mission of the university as a principal component of national innovation policies.

The basic structure of universities and colleges in Ontario - one focused primarily on expansion and greater access and put in place in the 1960s - is outdated. The system is now large enough, the eligible age group for entering post-secondary studies is shrinking, and participation rates are as high as they are likely to go. In Rethinking Higher Education, George Fallis argues that policy-makers should shift their attention away from growth and towards improving and diversifying the range of programs available and creating new means of program delivery. He calls for increases in honours undergraduate programs and polytechnic education and envisions a group of research-intensive universities responsible for doctoral education. The existing design, Fallis contends, neglects the specific needs of graduate education and research, layering it on top of a system designed for undergraduate education. In addition, there is disconnection between Ontario's Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities and the research missions of the universities and colleges themselves. Fallis recommends that Ontario establish a system for documenting and assessing the quality of research published at universities. Thought-provoking and thoroughly argued, Rethinking Higher Education provides a detailed design for higher education in the twenty-first century.

This book explores how the notion of the responsible university manifests itself at various levels within Nordic higher education. As the impetus of the knowledge society has catapulted the higher education sector to the forefront of policy agendas, universities and other types of higher education institutions face increasing scrutiny, assessment and accountability. This book examines this phenomenon using the Nordic countries as cases in point, given the strong public commitment towards widening participation and public research investments. The editors and contributors analyse the history and current transformations of the idea of the responsible university, investigate new innovations in the educational landscape and look into how universities have begun to organise themselves to become more responsible. Drawing together scholars from the humanities and the social sciences, this interdisciplinary collection will be of interest and value to students and scholars of the role and nature of the modern university, in addition to practitioners and policy makers tasked with finding solutions to address the competing and often contradictory demands posed by a responsibility agenda. .

Universities Are Changing Around The World. In China and Africa there is massive expansion, while many of America's greatest public universities are experiencing major budget cuts. In Latin America universities have been affected by dictatorships and privatization but are now growing in ways central to economic development. In Europe universities built as state institutions are being told to raise more money from private sources and are being reorganized so they will compete better in global rankings. In this context clarity about the public mission of universities is vital, yet it is lacking both outside and inside academia. When universities educate students, is this simply a private benefit because it advances their careers? Or is it a public good because informed citizens are integral to democracy and essential for national economic development? How important is equal opportunity? What are the effects of hierarchy? Who pays now and who will pay tomorrow? Should the results of academic research be private property for sale or openly available for public use? Who sets the university research agendas? What kinds of scholarship flourish and what kinds suffer? Should producing competitive research take priority over educating competent students? Do international rankings distort these and other university priorities or provide needed objective assessments? What are the university's roles and responsibilities in terms of knowledge creation and dissemination today? And tomorrow? In this collection, scholars report from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America. They confront the realities and challenges of higher education as it is torn between multiple public and private agendas. This comparative perspective illuminates both the continuing importance of the university's public mission and the pressing need to clarify it. Diana Rhoten is the founder and director of the Knowledge Institutions Program and the Digital Media and Learning Project at the Social Science Research Council. She has published in a range of academic journals and advises cultural, scientific, and educational institutions on issues of organizational design, creative collaboration, and adaptive change. Craig Calhoun is president of the Social Science Research Council and University Professor of the Social Sciences at New York University. He has served in a variety of academic leadership positions, including as a dean, and has conducted research in many international settings. His most recent book is an edited collection, Robert K Merton: Sociology of Science and Sociology as Science (Columbia).

This study seeks to examine the processes and strategies being devised by new Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to grow research. Set against the background of increasing competition and the greater geo-political significance placed on higher education and research, this book provides a profile of the experiences of a group of institutions that have hitherto been unidentified and unexplored. It analyses results drawn from an in-depth study of twenty-five HEIs from across sixteen countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hong Kong China, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.

This inclusive cross-cultural study rethinks the nexus between engineering education and context. In so doing the book offers a reflection on contextual boundaries with an overall boundary crossing ambition and juxtaposes important cases of critical participation within engineering education with sophisticated scholarly reflection on both opportunities and discontents. Whether and in what way engineering education is or ought to be contextualized or de-contextualized is an object of heated debate among engineering educators. The uniqueness of this study is that this debate is given comprehensive coverage – presenting both instrumentally inclined as well as radical positions on transforming engineering education. In contextualizing engineering education, this book offers diverse commentary from a range of disciplinary, meta- and interdisciplinary perspectives on how cultural, professional, institutional and educational systems contexts shape histories, structural dynamics, ideologies and challenges as well as new pathways in engineering education. Topics addressed include examining engineering education in countries ranging from India to America, to racial and gender equity in engineering education and incorporating social awareness into the area. Using context as “bridge” this book confronts engineering education head on. Contending engineering ideologies and corresponding views on context are juxtaposed with contending discourses of reform. The uniqueness of the book is that it brings together scholars from the humanities, the social sciences and engineering from Europe – both East and West – with the United States, China, Brazil, India and Australia.

This Open Access book analyses the past, present and future of the technical university as a single faculty independent institution. The point of departure is a view of changing academic realities, through which the identity as a technical university is challenged and reconstituted. More specifically, the book connects the development of technical universities to changes in the structure and dimensioning of national higher education systems, to changes in the disciplinary basis of academic research and to changes in the governance of higher education institutions. Introduced in the age of industrialization, polytechnical schools rose to prominence in many national settings during the second half of the 19th century. Over time, new technologies have been developed and incorporated into the repertoire, and waves of academisation have swept over the former polytechnics, transforming them into technical universities. Their traditions and brands, however, prevail. Several technical universities are included among the most prestigious academic institutions of their nations and the training of engineers and engineering research still enjoys a high level of prestige and national priority, e.g. in the context of innovation and industrial policy. But the world keeps changing, and the higher education sector with it. Will technical universities have an equally attractive position within university systems in the decades to come? .--