Speaking of universities
By: Stefan Collini
Publisher: Verso
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9781786631398; 9781786631404; 9781786641411
Subjects: Business and education; Higher Education; Aims and objectives; Education and globalization; Educational accountability; Economic aspects
Description: "A devastating analysis of what is happening to our universities. In recent decades there has been an immense global surge in the numbers both of universities and of students. In the UK alone there are now over 140 institutions teaching more subjects to nearly 2.5 million students. New technology offers new ways of learning and teaching. Globalization forces institutions to consider a new economic horizon. At the same time governments have systematically imposed new procedures regulating funding, governance, and assessment. Universities are being forced to behave more like business enterprises in a commercial marketplace than centres of learning. In Speaking of Universities, historian and critic Stefan Collini analyses these changes and challenges the assumptions of policy-makers and commentators. He asks: does 'marketization' threaten to destroy what we most value about education; does this new era of 'accountability' distort what it purports to measure; and who does the modern university belong to? Responding to recent policies and their underlying ideology, the book is a call to 'focus on what is actually happening and the cliches behind which it hides; an incitement to think again, think more clearly, and then to press for something better'"--

"In recent decades there has been an immense global surge in the numbers both of universities and of students. In the UK alone there are now over 140 institutions teaching more subjects to nearly 2.5 million students. New technology offers new ways of learning and teaching. Globalisation forces institutions to consider a new economic horizon. At the same governments have systematically imposed new procedures regulating funding, governance, and assessment. Universities are being forced to behave more like business enterprises in a commercial marketplace than centres of learning. In Speaking of Universities, historian and critic Stefan Collini analyses these changes and challenges the assumptions of policy-makers and commentators. He asks: does 'marketisation' threaten to destroy what we most value about education; does this new era of 'accountability' distort what it purports to measure; and who does the modern university 'belong to'? Responding to recent policies and their underlying ideology, the book is a call to 'focus on what is actually happening and the clich behind which it hides; an incitement to think again, think more clearly, and then to press for something better'"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 288-296).
Table of contents: title: What's happening to universities? Historical and comparative perspectives; title: Measuring up : universities and 'accountability'; title: Reading the ruins : criticism and 'the idea of the university'; title: From Robbings to McKinsey : the changing policy framework; title: Sold out : privatizing higher education; title: Higher purchase : the student as consumer; title: The 'English problem' and the Scottish solution; title: Public higher education : an undefensive defence; title: Speaking out : strategies and their publics; title: The future of the humanities; title: Who does the university belong to?