The Future of Higher Education

Dan Clawson, Max Page

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136164446
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Higher education is more important than ever, for individual success and for national economic growth. And yet higher education in the United States is in crisis: public funding has been in free fall; tuition has skyrocketed making colleges and universities less accessible; basic structures such as tenure are under assault. The Future of Higher Education analyzes the crisis in higher education, describing how a dominant neo-liberal political ideology has significantly changed the U.S. system of higher education. The book examines the contemporary landscape of higher education institutions and asks and answers these questions: Who is able to attend college? Who pays for our system of higher education? Who works at and who governs colleges and universities? The book concludes with a plan for radically revitalizing higher education in the United States.

The goal of this new, unique Series is to offer readable, teachable "thinking frames" on today's social problems and social issues by leading scholars, all in short 60 page or shorter formats, and available for view on http://routledge.customgateway.com/routledge-social-issues.html

For instructors teaching a wide range of courses in the social sciences, the Routledge Social Issues Collection now offers the best of both worlds: originally written short texts that provide "overviews" to important social issues as well as teachable excerpts from larger works previously published by Routledge and other presses.

Glossary/Index

2 year degrees 9–10

4 year degrees

costs in 1970-1 of obtaining 24

and debt accrued 34

and graduating in 4

years 12, 36

impact on income 13

A

ACT (originally American College Testing): standardized test taken by many students applying to college 12

administrators

in business model 18, 21, 39, 40, 43, 46

control over faculty hiring 21, 40, 43

in faculty governance model 16–17, 39

and increases in administrative support staff 39

and problem of tenured faculty 39–40

salaries 21, 43

admissions selectivity 11–12, 35

age of students 10

agency: a person’s ability to make free choices and act on the basis of those choices. Agency and social structure are often paired: to what extent are a person’s choices shaped by their place in the social structure, and to what extent by their individual actions? 3

American Dream 31

attendance, reasons for university 13

B

Bayh-Dole Act 1980 20

benchmarking 21

benefits of a higher education to individuals and society 13

British Petroleum (BP) 20

budget deficits 5

Bush, G.H.W. 5

Bush, G.W. 5

business model 18–20, 33, 45–46

CEO administrator 18, 21, 39, 40, 43, 46

contributing to rising costs of universities 26

democratic alternative to 48–49

and difficulty of tenured faculty in 39–40

increases in administrative staff 39

and preference for part-time low-paid staff 38, 40, 41, 43

student recruitment 33

C

campus workers’ pay and benefits 23, 38

chancellors and presidents

average tenure 21

in business model 18, 19, 21

in faculty governance model 16, 17

China 1

class inequality 11, 26, 29, 35–36, 46

Clinton, Bill 5

community colleges 9–10

state and parental funding 28

teaching in 41, 42

contracting out work 38, 40

costs of universities and colleges

decreasing government support 26–28, 48

escalating for students and their families 23–24

financial aid shifting from needs based to merit based 19, 29, 33

and increased inequality 26

market power pushing up 25

and measures of success in business model 26

reasons for escalating 25–29

D

debt, student 2, 34–35, 50

democratic alternative to business model 48–49

doctoral institutions 41

E

economic growth and correlation w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• I. Introduction
• II. The Lay of the Land
• III. Who Governs the University?
• IV. Who Pays?
• V. Who Goes?
• VI. Who Works?
• VII. Choosing a Future
• References
• Glossary/Index