Customer Reviews

Strategic Choices for the Academy: How Demand for Lifelong Learning Will Re-Create Higher Education (Josse Bass Higher and Adult Education)

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Full of university buzzwords and controversial advice regarding tenure and department structures, this book should be on the reading list of academic administrators, particularly those involved in distance learning, continuing education, and corporate education.

The authors essentially track changes in academia, point to new pressures on universities, and warn that universities that fail to make "strategic choices" will be left behind. These pressures include those exerted by new technology, workforce needs (the "demand for lifelong learning") and trends such as distance learning and experiential learning.

Whether the authors are entirely correct or not, these are the hot issues in academia today. Each week, the Chronicle of Higher Education features at least one article on one of these topics. Industry, IT and workforce needs plus technology developments are all forces putting pressure on universities and it will be interesting to see what the typical State U looks like twenty years from now.

All of that said, this book is really difficult to get through. Written by three authors, it would benefit greatly from the strong hand of one good editor. There is repetition from one chapter to the next, such that the reader is at risk of nodding off just when new information might appear.

Therefore, it's a mixed bag. Hard to read, but really full of timely material for those in academic administration.