Higher Education

Reviews / Votes

In the 1960s, two significant events occurred. In 1963, Clark Kerr, president of the University of California, invented the concept of the multiversity in his book The Uses of the University. By that concept, Kerr meant an institution that was becoming increasingly indistinguishable from any other business enterprise in our industrial society, 'a mechanism held together by administrative rules and powered by money.' Second, in 1966, Ronald Reagan ran for governor on a platform that included 'cleaning up the mess in Berkeley.' When Reagan became president of the United States in the 1980s, a movement began to privatize and corporatize functions and institutions previously thought of as public, fueled by the questionable belief that the for-profit sector could do it less expensively and more efficiently. The chapters found in Higher Education explore the negative consequences of these trends upon colleges and universities and highlight important issues that have largely been ignored. -- Ritchie P. Lowry, professor of sociology, Boston College, and author of Good Money: A Guide to Profitable Social Investing in the '90s The ever-growing power of the market ethic as a touchstone for university decision-making is transforming higher education. This provocative book casts a critical eye at how market values increasingly predominate across the campus landscape: in the science labs and on the athletic fields, in admissions offices and presidents' offices. For anyone who's troubled by the idea that higher education is losing sight of its true calling-the cultivation of knowledge-Higher Education delivers a confirmation and a call to arms. -- David L. Kirp, professor of public policy, University of California-Berkeley, and author of Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Mar The book will be useful, particularly in graduate-level courses in higher education. Summing Up: Recommended. -- R.O. Ulin, emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * CHOICE * The general issues raised by the authors are important ones. * Journal of Higher Education, January / February 2009 * A penetrating look at how and why our higher education system is becoming increasingly commercialzed, coupled with some wise advice concerning what we might do about it. -- Alexander W. Astin, Allan M. Cartter Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles and Founding Director of the Higher Education R