In Defense of American Higher Education

Front Cover
Philip G. Altbach, Patricia J. Gumport, D. Bruce Johnstone
JHU Press, Sep 5, 2001 - Education - 364 pages

The current era in higher education is characterized by increased need for accountability and fiscal constraint coupled with demands for increased productivity. Higher education is expected to meet the demand of changing student demographics, as well as requests for research and service from government and industry. To preserve the academy's ability to meet these demands, the editors and contributors to this volume argue that, while change is inevitable and desirable, any radical alterations to the practices that have established and upheld the excellence of higher education in the United States must be carefully considered.The editors and contributors cherish the best ideals of higher education: academic freedom, commitment to both inquiry and teaching, and preservation of an independence of mind and spirit in the face of external pressures. At the same time, the authors of these essays also reflect upon the failings of higher education, including problematic historical legacies such as racism, sexism, and anti-semitism. In Defense of American Higher Education is a careful analysis of what we have inherited, undertaken with a critical eye for constructive reform. It will be of interest to anyone concerned about the future of American higher education.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
1
Chapter
11
Chapter
38
Chapter Three
59
Chapter Four
85
Chapter Five
110
Chapter
144
Chapter Seven
181
Chapter Eight
202
Chapter Nine
227
Chapter
249
Chapter Eleven
277
Chapter Twelve
304
Chapter Thirteen
323
List of Contributors
353
Copyright

Other editions - View all

In Defense of American Higher Education
Philip G. Altbach,Patricia J. Gumport,D. Bruce Johnstone
Limited preview - 2003
In Defense of American Higher Education
Philip G. Altbach,Patricia J. Gumport,D. Bruce Johnstone
Limited preview - 2001
In Defense of American Higher Education
Philip G. Altbach,Patricia J. Gumport,D. Bruce Johnstone
Limited preview - 2001

Common terms and phrases

academic system activities administrators American academic American colleges American higher education campus career cation century challenges Clark Kerr colleges and universities community colleges courses crises crisis critical curriculum decades degree dents distance education distance learning economic educa elite enrollment European experience faculty members functions funding governance graduate education increase industry information technology intellectual interactions Johns Hopkins University Jossey-Bass knowledge land-grant universities leadership leges liberal arts colleges liberal education major mass customization mass higher education ment National organization organizational percent political postsecondary president problems productivity professional professors programs public higher education public universities research universities responsibility role scholars schools sity social society stitutions structure teachers teaching tenure tion tional traditional tuition ucation undergraduate education United University of Phoenix University Press values versities Western Governors University York

References to this book

About the author (2001)

Philip G. Altbach is the J. Donald Monan, SJ, Professor of Higher Education and director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College. Patricia J. Gumport is a professor of education, the vice-provost for graduate education, and the director of the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research at Stanford University. She is coeditor of the fourth edition of American Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges and In Defense of American Higher Education, both published by Johns Hopkins. D. Bruce Johnstone is SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of Higher and Comparative Education Emeritus at the State University of New York at Buffalo, author of Financing Higher Education: Cost-Sharing in International Perspective, and coeditor of In Defense of American Higher Education, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Bibliographic information

TitleIn Defense of American Higher Education
In Defense of American Higher Education, Donald Bruce Johnstone
EditorsPhilip G. Altbach, Patricia J. Gumport, D. Bruce Johnstone
Editionillustrated
PublisherJHU Press, 2001
ISBN0801866545, 9780801866548
Length364 pages
Subjects ›  ›  › 

Education / Administration / Higher
Education / Aims & Objectives
Education / Finance
Education / General
Education / Philosophy, Theory & Social Aspects
Education / Schools / Levels / Higher
Education / Schools / Levels / Secondary
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan