In Defense Of American Higher Education

Author : Philip G. Altbach,Patricia J. Gumport,D. Bruce Johnstone
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 373 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2001-09-05
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780801866548

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In Defense of American Higher Education by Philip G. Altbach,Patricia J. Gumport,D. Bruce Johnstone Pdf

The current era in higher education is characterized by increased need for accountability and fiscal constraint coupled with demands for increased productivity. Higher education is expected to meet the demand of changing student demographics, as well as requests for research and service from government and industry. To preserve the academy's ability to meet these demands, the editors and contributors to this volume argue that, while change is inevitable and desirable, any radical alterations to the practices that have established and upheld the excellence of higher education in the United States must be carefully considered.The editors and contributors cherish the best ideals of higher education: academic freedom, commitment to both inquiry and teaching, and preservation of an independence of mind and spirit in the face of external pressures. At the same time, the authors of these essays also reflect upon the failings of higher education, including problematic historical legacies such as racism, sexism, and anti-semitism. In Defense of American Higher Education is a careful analysis of what we have inherited, undertaken with a critical eye for constructive reform. It will be of interest to anyone concerned about the future of American higher education.

Author : Philip G. Altbach,Patricia J. Gumport,D. Bruce Johnstone
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 378 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2003-04-30
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780801874567

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In Defense of American Higher Education by Philip G. Altbach,Patricia J. Gumport,D. Bruce Johnstone Pdf

The current era in higher education is characterized by increased need for accountability and fiscal constraint coupled with demands for increased productivity. Higher education is expected to meet the demand of changing student demographics, as well as requests for research and service from government and industry. To preserve the academy's ability to meet these demands, the editors and contributors to this volume argue that, while change is inevitable and desirable, any radical alterations to the practices that have established and upheld the excellence of higher education in the United States must be carefully considered.The editors and contributors cherish the best ideals of higher education: academic freedom, commitment to both inquiry and teaching, and preservation of an independence of mind and spirit in the face of external pressures. At the same time, the authors of these essays also reflect upon the failings of higher education, including problematic historical legacies such as racism, sexism, and anti-semitism. In Defense of American Higher Education is a careful analysis of what we have inherited, undertaken with a critical eye for constructive reform. It will be of interest to anyone concerned about the future of American higher education.

Author : Michael N. Bastedo,Philip G. Altbach,Patricia J. Gumport
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 571 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2016-03-30
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781421419909

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American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century by Michael N. Bastedo,Philip G. Altbach,Patricia J. Gumport Pdf

American Higher Education in the Twenty-first century offers a comprehensive introduction to the central issues facing American colleges and universities. The contributors address major changes in higher education--including the rise of organized social movements, the problem of income inequality and stratification, the growth of for-profit and distance education, online education, community colleges, and teaching and learning-- will placing American higher education and its complex social and political context. --Cover.

Author : Fareed Zakaria
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2015-03-30
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780393247695

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In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria Pdf

CNN host and best-selling author Fareed Zakaria argues for a renewed commitment to the world’s most valuable educational tradition. The liberal arts are under attack. The governors of Florida, Texas, and North Carolina have all pledged that they will not spend taxpayer money subsidizing the liberal arts, and they seem to have an unlikely ally in President Obama. While at a General Electric plant in early 2014, Obama remarked, "I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree." These messages are hitting home: majors like English and history, once very popular and highly respected, are in steep decline. "I get it," writes Fareed Zakaria, recalling the atmosphere in India where he grew up, which was even more obsessed with getting a skills-based education. However, the CNN host and best-selling author explains why this widely held view is mistaken and shortsighted. Zakaria eloquently expounds on the virtues of a liberal arts education—how to write clearly, how to express yourself convincingly, and how to think analytically. He turns our leaders' vocational argument on its head. American routine manufacturing jobs continue to get automated or outsourced, and specific vocational knowledge is often outdated within a few years. Engineering is a great profession, but key value-added skills you will also need are creativity, lateral thinking, design, communication, storytelling, and, more than anything, the ability to continually learn and enjoy learning—precisely the gifts of a liberal education. Zakaria argues that technology is transforming education, opening up access to the best courses and classes in a vast variety of subjects for millions around the world. We are at the dawn of the greatest expansion of the idea of a liberal education in human history.

Author : Arthur Levine,Scott J. Van Pelt
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2021-09-14
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781421442587

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The Great Upheaval by Arthur Levine,Scott J. Van Pelt Pdf

How will America's colleges and universities adapt to remarkable technological, economic, and demographic change? The United States is in the midst of a profound transformation the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Industrial Revolution, when America's classical colleges adapted to meet the needs of an emerging industrial economy. Today, as the world shifts to an increasingly interconnected knowledge economy, the intersecting forces of technological innovation, globalization, and demographic change create vast new challenges, opportunities, and uncertainties. In this great upheaval, the nation's most enduring social institutions are at a crossroads. In The Great Upheaval, Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt examine higher and postsecondary education to see how it has changed to become what it is today—and how it might be refitted for an uncertain future. Taking a unique historical, cross-industry perspective, Levine and Van Pelt perform a 360-degree survey of American higher education. Combining historical, trend, and comparative analyses of other business sectors, they ask • how much will colleges and universities change, what will change, and how will these changes occur? • will institutions of higher learning be able to adapt to the challenges they face, or will they be disrupted by them? • will the industrial model of higher education be repaired or replaced? • why is higher education more important than ever? The book is neither an attempt to advocate for a particular future direction nor a warning about that future. Rather, it looks objectively at the contexts in which higher education has operated—and will continue to operate. It also seeks to identify likely developments that will aid those involved in steering higher education forward, as well as the many millions of Americans who have a stake in its future. Concluding with a detailed agenda for action, The Great Upheaval is aimed at policy makers, college administrators, faculty, trustees, and students, as well as general readers and people who work for nonprofits facing the same big changes.

Author : Philip G. Altbach,Robert O. Berdahl,Robert Oliver Berdahl,Patricia J. Gumport
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Education
ISBN : 0801880343

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American Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century by Philip G. Altbach,Robert O. Berdahl,Robert Oliver Berdahl,Patricia J. Gumport Pdf

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.

Author : Lee Trepanier
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 168 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2017-03-08
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781498538619

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Why the Humanities Matter Today by Lee Trepanier Pdf

The humanities in American higher education is in a state of crisis with declining student enrollment, fewer faculty positions, and diminishing public prestige. Instead of recycling old arguments that have lost their appeal, the humanities must discover and articulate new rationales for their value to students, faculty, administrators, and the public. Why the Humanities Matter Today: In Defense of Liberal Education is an attempt to do so by having philosophers, literature and foreign language professors, historians, and political theorists defend the value and explain the worth of their respective disciplines as well as illuminate the importance of liberal education. By setting forth new arguments about the significance of their disciplines, these scholars show how the humanities can reclaim its place of prominence in American higher education.

Author : Philip G. Altbach
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 349 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2016-04
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781421419268

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Global Perspectives on Higher Education by Philip G. Altbach Pdf

The single best book on higher education as a global phenomenon. Over the past half-century, globalization has had a profound impact on postsecondary education. The twin forces of mass higher education and the global knowledge economy have driven an unprecedented transformation. These fundamental changes have pulled in opposite directions: one pushes for wider access and accompanying challenges of quality, the other toward exclusive, “world class” research-oriented universities. In Global Perspectives on Higher Education, renowned higher education scholar Philip G. Altbach offers a wide-ranging perspective on the implications of these key forces and explores how they influence academe everywhere. Altbach begins with a discussion of the global trends that increasingly affect higher education, including the implications of mass enrollments, the logic of mass higher education systems around the world, and specific challenges facing Brazil, Russia, India, and China. He considers the numerous implications of globalization, including the worldwide use of the English language, university cross-border initiatives, the role of research universities in developing countries, the impact of the West on Asian universities, and the expansion of private higher education. Provocative and wide-ranging, Global Perspectives on Higher Education considers how the international exchange of ideas, students, and scholars has fundamentally altered higher education.

Author : Jennifer Washburn
Publisher : Basic Books (AZ)
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2005-02-15
Category : Education
ISBN : 0465090516

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University, Inc by Jennifer Washburn Pdf

A sobering examination of the corporate funding of universities reveals the compromises being made in exchange for sponsorship, the ways in which teaching is slowly being devalued, and the changes being wrought on the futures of students everywhere. 15,000 first printing.

Author : Jerry A. Jacobs
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2014-02-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780226069463

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In Defense of Disciplines by Jerry A. Jacobs Pdf

Calls for closer connections among disciplines can be heard throughout the world of scholarly research, from major universities to the National Institutes of Health. In Defense of Disciplines presents a fresh and daring analysis of the argument surrounding interdisciplinarity. Challenging the belief that blurring the boundaries between traditional academic fields promotes more integrated research and effective teaching, Jerry Jacobs contends that the promise of interdisciplinarity is illusory and that critiques of established disciplines are often overstated and misplaced. Drawing on diverse sources of data, Jacobs offers a new theory of liberal arts disciplines such as biology, economics, and history that identifies the organizational sources of their dynamism and breadth. Illustrating his thesis with a wide range of case studies including the diffusion of ideas between fields, the creation of interdisciplinary scholarly journals, and the rise of new fields that spin off from existing ones, Jacobs turns many of the criticisms of disciplines on their heads to mount a powerful defense of the enduring value of liberal arts disciplines. This will become one of the anchors of the case against interdisciplinarity for years to come.

Author : Ellen Schrecker
Publisher : The New Press
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2010-08-24
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781595586032

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The Lost Soul of Higher Education by Ellen Schrecker Pdf

The professor and historian delivers a major critique of how political and financial attacks on the academy are undermining our system of higher education. Making a provocative foray into the public debates over higher education, acclaimed historian Ellen Schrecker argues that the American university is under attack from two fronts. On the one hand, outside pressure groups have staged massive challenges to academic freedom, beginning in the 1960s with attacks on faculty who opposed the Vietnam War, and resurfacing more recently with well-funded campaigns against Middle Eastern Studies scholars. Connecting these dots, Schrecker reveals a distinct pattern of efforts to undermine the legitimacy of any scholarly study that threatens the status quo. At the same time, Schrecker deftly chronicles the erosion of university budgets and the encroachment of private-sector influence into academic life. From the dwindling numbers of full-time faculty to the collapse of library budgets, The Lost Soul of Higher Education depicts a system increasingly beholden to corporate America and starved of the resources it needs to educate the new generation of citizens. A sharp riposte to the conservative critics of the academy by the leading historian of the McCarthy-era witch hunts, The Lost Soul of Higher Education, reveals a system in peril—and defends the vital role of higher education in our democracy.

Author : Philip G. Altbach,Robert Oliver Berdahl,Robert O. Berdahl,Patricia J. Gumport
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 572 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2005-02-25
Category : Education
ISBN : 0801880351

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American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century by Philip G. Altbach,Robert Oliver Berdahl,Robert O. Berdahl,Patricia J. Gumport Pdf

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.

Author : Andrew Delbanco
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2023-04-18
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780691246383

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College by Andrew Delbanco Pdf

The strengths and failures of the American college, and why liberal education still matters As the commercialization of American higher education accelerates, more and more students are coming to college with the narrow aim of obtaining a preprofessional credential. The traditional four-year college experience—an exploratory time for students to discover their passions and test ideas and values with the help of teachers and peers—is in danger of becoming a thing of the past. In College, prominent cultural critic Andrew Delbanco offers a trenchant defense of such an education, and warns that it is becoming a privilege reserved for the relatively rich. In describing what a true college education should be, he demonstrates why making it available to as many young people as possible remains central to America's democratic promise. In a brisk and vivid historical narrative, Delbanco explains how the idea of college arose in the colonial period from the Puritan idea of the gathered church, how it struggled to survive in the nineteenth century in the shadow of the new research universities, and how, in the twentieth century, it slowly opened its doors to women, minorities, and students from low-income families. He describes the unique strengths of America’s colleges in our era of globalization and, while recognizing the growing centrality of science, technology, and vocational subjects in the curriculum, he mounts a vigorous defense of a broadly humanistic education for all. Acknowledging the serious financial, intellectual, and ethical challenges that all colleges face today, Delbanco considers what is at stake in the urgent effort to protect these venerable institutions for future generations.

Author : Irving Babbitt
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 1908
Category : Literature
ISBN : UOM:39015011280933

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Literature and the American College by Irving Babbitt Pdf

Author : Arthur M. Cohen,Carrie B. Kisker
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 391 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2009-11-19
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780470551660

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The Shaping of American Higher Education by Arthur M. Cohen,Carrie B. Kisker Pdf

THE SHAPING OF AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION SECOND EDITION When the first edition of The Shaping of American Higher Education was published it was lauded for its historical perspective and in-depth coverage of current events that provided an authoritative, comprehensive account of??the history of higher education in the United States. As in the first edition, this book tracks trends and important issues in eight key areas: student access, faculty professionalization, curricular expansion, institutional growth, governance, finance, research, and outcomes. Thoroughly revised and updated, the volume is filled with critical new data; recent information from specialized sources on faculty, student admissions, and management practices; and an entirely new section that explores privatization, corporatization, and accountability from the mid-1990s to the present. This second edition also includes end-of-chapter questions for guidance, reflection, and study.???? "Cohen and Kisker do the nation's colleges and universities a much needed service by authoring this volume. The highly regarded histories of American higher education have become badly dated. They ignore the last quarter century when American higher education was transformed. This volume provides comprehensive information on that era." — Art Levine, president, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and author, When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today's College Student "The second edition of The Shaping of American Higher Education is a treasure trove of information and insight. Cohen and Kisker provide us with astute and straightforward analysis and commentary on our past, present, and likely future. This book is invaluable to those seeking to go to the heart of the issues and challenges confronting higher education." — Judith S. Eaton, president, Council for Higher Education Accreditation "Arthur Cohen and his collaborator have now updated his superb history of American higher education. It remains masterful, authoritative, comprehensive, and incisive, and guarantees that this work will stand as the classic required resource for all who want to understand where higher education came from and where it is going. The new material gives a wise and nuanced perspective on the current crisis-driven transformations of the higher education industry." — John Lombardi, president, Louisiana State University System "The Shaping of American Higher Education is distinguished by its systematic approach, comprehensive coverage, and extensive treatment of the modern era, including the first years of the twenty-first century. In this second edition, Arthur Cohen??and Carrie Kisker are??especially adept at bringing historical perspective and a balanced viewpoint to controversial issues of the current era." — Roger L. Geiger, distinguished professor, The Pennsylvania State University, and author, Knowledge and Money