Customer Reviews

The Future of Higher Education : Rhetoric, Reality, and the Risks of the Market

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A collaborative effort by academics Frank Newman, Lara Couturier, and Jamie Scurry, The Future of Higher Education: Rhetoric, Reality and the Risks of the Market is a no-nonsense scrutiny of the risks inherent in making higher education a market rather than a regulated public sector institution. Revealing findings from a thorough four-year examination of the forces transforming the American system of higher education today, The Future of Higher Education covers intensified competition between institutions, globalization of colleges and universities, the increase of for-profit and virtual institutions, the growing influence of technology on learning and its methodologies, and much more. A critical account that suggests strategies for adapting to the new era without sacrificing the virtues of the old, The Future of Higher Education is especially recommended for college professors and administrators seeking to chart a successful future for themselves and their students.

First, I completely disagree with the major conclusions of this book, and frankly, even with its moral perspective. I find it to be a one-sided work of propoganda which takes the form of an apologetic for the homogenization of the intellectual professions. This work is a disgrace, highly misleading, and even dangerous if taken literally or adopted in whole as the correct perspective. Evidence presented is extremely selective and the interpretation is guided mainly by the authors' predetermined values. Forget about a balanced, multi-perspective book here. Aside from the dry academic tone of the title, it is anything but an 'objective' or multi-perspective book. Risks are glossed over and lamentable changes to the academic profession are encouraged to be taken as far as possible in this book. It is a wolf in sheep's clothing - a book pretending to be by and for academics, with an academic mindset; instead, it's a book by managers who, if they could, would devise standardized tests to determine the competence of professors. People who see homogenization as inevitable and even desirable. Not my kind of people. The most disturbing thing about this book is that it is sadly, correct and useful as a vision of where higher education may be headed, and it's a dystopian place. The state (and particularly, the powerful class that manages the state) does want to control universities very badly, and they are finding "subtle" ways to do it. This book offers a glimpse into some of the things they plan to do in order to end academic freedom while giving the public (and even some very misled academics) the illusion that academic freedom still exists.