Charles Vest gave the second of three Clark Kerr Lectures on the Role of Higher Education in Society on April 21, 2005 on the Santa Barbara campus. The Age of the Internet presents remarkable opportunities for higher education and research in the United States and throughout the world. The rise of a meta-university of globally shared teaching materials and scholarly archives, undergirding campuses everywhere, both rich and poor, could well be a dominant, democratizing aspect of the next few decades. Even as we develop the meta-university and other forms of digitally empowered...
Charles Vest gave the first of three Clark Kerr Lectures on the Role of Higher Education in Society on April 19, 2005 on the Berkeley campus. This essay argues that research-intensive public and private universities increasingly have far more similarities than differences in missions, structures, and even financial support. For both, the federal government, despite numerous tensions, remains our indispensable partner. At the same time, the role of state governments toward their public universities has evolved from that of patron to that of partner — sometimes a minor partner...
The following paper highlights the political, economic, socio-cultural, ethical, philosophical, legal, and practical aspects of the far-reaching theme of international trends in private higher education, in general. It also focuses on the driving forces, causes and consequences of the emergence of private higher education in India during the last three decades, in particular. Though there has been more acceptance of private higher education institutions in India today than the ‘trepidation’ felt at their emergence three decades ago, certain basic questions about its role remain. Is...
Higher education has become the focus of increased public debate. Stewardship of public resources, student achievement or the lack thereof, relationships and “partnerships” with business and industry in the area of research, substantial increases in tuition and fees, public perception of wrong-doing in the quality of programs, and allegations of wrongdoing in financial and programmatic areas have all led to calls for greater transparency, accountability, and impartiality. At root, these issues all concern trust. This paper discusses accountability in higher education as well as the...
It is not uncommon when reading about higher education change in the Asia Pacific region to see it described in the context of globalization and internationalization. These terms are sometimes used interchangeably as in “the globalized university”, “internationalization of higher education”, “internationalizing the university in the age of globalization” and so on. Often the use of these terms assumes that the reader knows how to distinguish between them, how they relate to each other, and how these large, somewhat slippery concepts are connected to individual HEIs. This paper...
The imbalance between supply and demand of higher education has always been the greatest challenge for Turkey. To overcome this challenge, Turkey beginning in 2006 established new public universities, mostly in less developed provinces. Now one in two fresh high school graduates is being admitted to a higher education program. Yet, the rapid growth of higher education triggered debates about the quality of education. Based on an analysis of available statistics and reports, this essay analyzes this process of massification in Turkey, including a brief synopsis of its higher education...
In pursuit of enhanced employability of university graduates, along with their increased mobility in a rapidly globalizing economy, colleges and universities in the world today participate in regional alliances and partnerships in which shared targets with mutually recognized degrees and curricula are sought across boundaries through transnational higher education policies. The Bologna Process is certainly exemplified as one of the most important multilateral efforts in the recent history of higher education, in establishing such a system of quality assurance within the European...
This article reviews the educational policies of Spain and England in their most emblematic colonies, Mexico and India, respectively, and compares them to those of the United States. Mexico and India share one important historical feature: both were colonies in which the native population greatly outnumbered European colonists and in which native cooperation was crucial to the colonial enterprise. In both cases, the European powers felt compelled to educate members of the native elites to conduct the business of empire for them. In contrast, the United States was a “white colony,” in...
China has recently disclosed a national strategy for enlisting universities to advise the government through campus-based think tanks that will engage in research for various ministries. This move might surprise some academics in the United States. A review of the history of American universities and think tanks, however, reveals complex relationships between these organizations and government that are not as dissimilar to those involving their Chinese counterparts as they might appear. In both countries, think tanks are institutions with a certain degree of formal independence whose...
This article examines institutional and demographic variables associated with successful joint partnerships between US and Chinese institutions of higher education. Understanding those variables requires an appreciation of overarching issues or the catalysts bringing both nations together and, as well, how postsecondary environments differ and the implications of such differences for success. The authors do not assume complete alignment in the interests promoting cooperation between the U. S. and China, but a convergence of mutual interests. The paper discusses different operational...
