As the nature of education generally, and higher education in
particular, changes irrevocably, it is crucial to understand the
informed opinions of those closest to the institutions of learning. This
book, based on a survey of academics in 19 nations and conducted by
leading global scholars, is a thorough sounding of the attitudes of
academics to their working environment. As the post-WWII liberal
consensus crumbles, higher education is increasingly viewed as a private
and personal investment in individual social mobility rather than as a
public good and, ipso facto, a responsibility of public authorities.
The incursion of corporate culture into academe, with its
'stakeholders', 'performance pay' and obsession with 'competitiveness'
is a matter of bitter debate, with some arguing that short-termism is
obviating epoch-making research which by definition requires patience
and persistence in the face of the risk of failure.
This book highlights these and many other key issues facing the academic
profession in the US and around the world at the beginning of the 21st
century and examines the issues from the perspective of those who are at
the front line of change. This group has numerous concerns, not least in
the US, where government priorities are shifting with growing budget
pressures to core activities such as basic education, health and
welfare. Drawing too on comparable surveys conducted in 1992, the book
charts the actual contours of change as reflected in the opinions of
academics. Critically, the volume explicitly compares and contrasts the
situation of American academics with that of academics in other advanced
and developing economies. Such an assessment is critical both for
Americans to chart the future of their indigenous tertiary enterprise,
but also for shaping the response of the nations around the world who
contemplate applying the American model to their own national systems.
