How the university went global and became the heart of the information
age
The university is experiencing an unprecedented level of success today,
as more universities in more countries educate more students in more
fields. At the same time, the university has become central to a
knowledge society based on the belief that everyone can, through higher
education, access universal truths and apply them in the name of
progress. This book traces the university's rise over the past hundred
years to become the cultural linchpin of contemporary society, revealing
how the so-called ivory tower has become profoundly interlinked with
almost every area of human endeavor.
David John Frank and John Meyer describe how, as the university
expanded, student and faculty bodies became larger, more diverse, and
more empowered to turn knowledge into action. Their contributions to
society underscored the public importance of scholarship, and as the
cultural authority of universities grew they increased the scope of
their research and teaching interests. As a result, the university has
become the bedrock of today's information-based society, an institution
that is now implicated in the solution to every conceivable problem.
But, as Frank and Meyer also show, the conditions that helped spur the
university's recent ascendance are not immutable: eruptions of
nationalism, authoritarianism, and illiberalism undercut the
university's universalistic and rationalistic premises, and may threaten
the centrality of the university itself.
