There is greater interest than ever before in higher education. More money is being spent on it, more students are registered, and more courses are being taught. And yet the matter that is arguably at the heart of higher education, the curriculum, is noticeable for its absence in public debate and i[...]
Despite an increasing volume of talk about and a growing literature on higher education, very little of it asks the question - what, in essence "is" higher education? The tradition of overarching thinking about higher education - from Newman onwards - has almost vanished. The debate has focused, ins[...]
The university has lost its way. The world needs the university more than ever but for new reasons. If we are to clarify its new role in the world, we need to find a new vocabulary and a new sense of purpose. The university is faced with supercomplexity, in which our very frames of understanding, ac[...]
"stimulating and full of insight" British Journal of Educational Studies "a major work ...provocative, unsettling and profoundly challenging. I think it should be prescribed reading for all vice-chancellors." (Professor Colin Bundy, Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University [...]
There is an extraordinary but largely unnoticed phenomenon in higher education: by and large, students persevere and complete their studies. How should we interpret this tendency? Students are living in uncertain times and often experience anxiety, and yet they continue to press forward with their s[...]
There is no single idea of the university. Ever since its medieval origin, the concept of the university has continued to change. The metaphysical university gave way successively to the scientific university, and then to the corporate and the entrepreneurial university. But what, then, might lie ah[...]
Around the world, what it is to be a university is a matter of much debate. The range of ideas of the university in public circulation is, however, exceedingly narrow and is dominated by the idea of the entrepreneurial university. As a consequence, the debate is hopelessly impoverished. Lurking in t[...]
Kvalitet är ett delvis öppet begrepp som formas utifrån olika intressen. Studenter, lärare, administratörer, politiker, näringslivets företrädare m fl inom högre utbildning får klara sig utan ett färdigt kvalitetsbegrepp, menar författarna och vill istället se att utbildningskvalitet oc[...]