Among the topics considered are the logic of mass higher education, globalization and inequality, the role of research universities, academic freedom, private higher education, and the academic profession and its problems. These topical chapters are accompanied by in-depth discussions of Asia and Africa.

A brilliant analysis of the transition in world economics, finance, and power as the era of globalization ends and gives way to new power centers and institutions. The world is at a turning point similar to the fall of communism. Then, many focused on the collapse itself, and failed to see that a bigger trend, globalization, was about to take hold. The benefits of globalization--through the freer flow of money, people, ideas, and trade--have been many. But rather than a world that is flat, what has emerged is one of jagged peaks and rough, deep valleys characterized by wealth inequality, indebtedness, political recession, and imbalances across the world's economies. These peaks and valleys are undergoing what Michael O'Sullivan calls "the levelling"--a major transition in world economics, finance, and power. What's next is a levelling-out of wealth between poor and rich countries, of power between nations and regions, of political accountability from elites to the people, and of institutional power away from central banks and defunct twentieth-century institutions such as the WTO and the IMF. O'Sullivan then moves to ways we can develop new, pragmatic solutions to such critical problems as political discontent, stunted economic growth, the productive functioning of finance, and political-economic structures that serve broader needs. The Levelling comes at a crucial time in the rise and fall of nations. It has special importance for the US as its place in the world undergoes radical change--the ebbing of influence, profound questions over its economic model, societal decay, and the turmoil of public life.

Universities find themselves in dynamic change. They are confronted with growing expectations from their stakeholders, increasing international competition, and new technological challenges. Featuring insights and in-depth case studies from leading researchers and university decision makers from around the world, this book argues that institutions of higher education, in order to be successful, have to actively reflect on circumstances, visions, and strategies to master the future. Drawing from their experiences across a diverse array of institutions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, the authors explore the pressures on today’s universities and the opportunities for excelling in the contest for resources. They discuss operational issues, such as strategic management, IT governance, leadership development, and entrepreneurial culture, and broader concerns, such as the roles and responsibilities of universities in promoting technology transfer and economic and social development. The result is a resource that not only reveals and analyzes universities from an organizational perspective, but presents best practice models and concrete inspiration for management and policymaking.

This ambitious book grows out of the realization that a convergence of economic, demographic, and political forces in the early twenty-first century requires a fundamental reexamination of the financing of American higher education. The authors identify and address basic issues and trends that cut across the sectors of higher education, focusing on such questions as how much higher education the country needs for individual opportunity and for economic viability in the future; how responsibility for paying for it is currently allocated; and how financing higher education should be addressed in the future.

The single best book on higher education as a global phenomenon. Over the past half-century, globalization has had a profound impact on postsecondary education. The twin forces of mass higher education and the global knowledge economy have driven an unprecedented transformation. These fundamental changes have pulled in opposite directions: one pushes for wider access and accompanying challenges of quality, the other toward exclusive, “world class” research-oriented universities. In Global Perspectives on Higher Education, renowned higher education scholar Philip G. Altbach offers a wide-ranging perspective on the implications of these key forces and explores how they influence academe everywhere. Altbach begins with a discussion of the global trends that increasingly affect higher education, including the implications of mass enrollments, the logic of mass higher education systems around the world, and specific challenges facing Brazil, Russia, India, and China. He considers the numerous implications of globalization, including the worldwide use of the English language, university cross-border initiatives, the role of research universities in developing countries, the impact of the West on Asian universities, and the expansion of private higher education. Provocative and wide-ranging, Global Perspectives on Higher Education considers how the international exchange of ideas, students, and scholars has fundamentally altered higher education.

Post-secondary education is a massive globalizing industry with a potential for growth that cannot be overestimated. By 2010 there will be 100 million people in the world, all fully qualified to proceed from secondary to tertiary education, but there will be no room left on any campus. A distinguished panel of scholars and educational administrators from the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific was asked to speak on the complexities of globalized higher education from their positions of concern and expertise and then engage in a dialogue. The result is this timely and important work. Globalization and Higher Education aims to energize readers into rethinking higher education. It succeeds by dealing thoughtfully and provocatively with pertinent issues that cut across and transcend national boundaries as well as very different points of view. Contributors: Tom P. Abeles, Jan Currie, Gerard Delanty, Leonardo Garnier, Sohail Inayatullah, Charles Karelis, Peter T. Manicas, John J. McDermott, Michael Margoils, Deane Neubauer, Jaishree K. Odin, Richard S. Ruch, Charles Smith, Su Hao, Scott Thomas, Peter Wagner.

This comprehensive book provides a collection of the critical papers that have been published in the fast-growing field of the globalization of higher education. They include work by a variety of noted scholars, such as Altbach, Clark and Marginson, which cover key areas of theoretical and substantive interest. This volume, along with an original introduction, will be of relevance to academics, researchers and students undertaking higher education research, as well as to the wider social science and public policy communities.