American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges

Summary: America's colleges and universities are social institutions -- embedded in the wider society and subject in various ways to its constraining forces. In American Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century, researchers who share this understanding explore the new realities of higher education and consider its greatest challenges for the next century.Subject to increasing scrutiny by the media and the public, colleges and universities must wrestle with a wide range of issues generated by their various external constituencies. Academic leaders rearrange their curricula to meet demands for multiculturalism. They seek an appropriate response as race-based admissions procedures come under attack. They assess student learning and monitor faculty productivity--while simultaneously responding to calls for the end of tenure and for explanations of why the cost of attending college has risen so dramatically.

Using the changing social, political, and economic contexts of colleges and universities as a lens for examining these complex issues, the contributors seek to understand the forces -- whether unique to our era or rooted in the past -- that currently influence higher education and will continue to do so in the next century. Whether discussing finance or technology or academic freedom or the canon, the authors find that relations between academic institutions and their surrounding societies have generally been ambivalent: both involved and withdrawn, servicing and criticizing, needing and being needed. Understanding the complex interplay between institutions and external forces, they conclude, is the key to guiding the endeavors of faculty, students, and administrative leaders alike.

 

Review: I read this book for a class on perspectives in higher education in the United States for my master's degree program. I was only required to read the first nine chapters, so I've only read about 300 of the roughly 450 pages in this book, but I think enough to give a review. This book is composed of 17 chapters by different authors on various topics in higher education. Topics reviewed include academic freedom, the federal and state government, accreditation, the legal environment, and patterns in higher education.

 

Like most compilations of essays, some of these were better than others. I particularly liked the breakdown of patterns and trends in higher education broken down by decades. For those who work or study within America's higher education system and are curious to learn more about its history or the complexity of the system, this book is a good place to start. It gives a good overview of numerous topics from the evolving job of the college president to the influence of the GI bill on colleges and universities.

 

On the other hand, this book is somewhat dated. The edition I read was published in 1999. Substantial changes in public policy and trends in higher education have taken place in the fifteen years since this was written. Therefore, this text is probably a better resource for historical overview of higher education in America rather than current practices.

 

Stars: 3