The authors explain how various state governance structures influence the way priorities for higher education are established. Based on a study conducted by the California Higher Education Policy Center, now The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, this study examines whether existing state higher education structures are adequate given the economic, social, and technological challenges of the 1990s and the first decades of the 21st century. The study also explored whether these structures are prepared to handle the changing student population as well as what appears to be an unprecedented period of increased demand for higher education in some states. The book contains comparative case studies of higher education systems in seven large and diverse states: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Texas.

Abstract:

This book contributes to the understanding of the responsibilities of Higher Education in the evolving societal, political and economic landscape. It raises questions about its role in society, its responsibility towards students and staff, and its intended impact.

A comprehensive examination of higher education multi-campus systems and their role in improving state economies and communities. This thought-provoking volume brings together scholars and system leaders to analyze some of the most pressing and complex issues now facing higher education systems and society. Higher Education Systems 3.0 focuses on the remaking of higher education coordination in an era of increased accountability, greater calls for productivity, and intensifying fiscal austerity. System heads have been identifying ways to harness the collective contributions of their various institutions to benefit the students, communities, and other stakeholders that they serve. The contributors explore the recent dynamics of higher education systems, focusing particularly on how systems are now working to improve their effectiveness in educating students and improving our communities, while also identifying new means for operating more efficiently. This enhanced collaboration, or systemness, is the key aspect of version 3.0.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This open access book is a result of the first ever study of the transformations of the higher education institutional landscape in fifteen former USSR countries after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It explores how the single Soviet model that developed across the vast and diverse territory of the Soviet Union over several decades has evolved into fifteen unique national systems, systems that have responded to national and global developments while still bearing some traces of the past. The book is distinctive as it presents a comprehensive analysis of the reforms and transformations in the region in the last 25 years; and it focuses on institutional landscape through the evolution of the institutional types established and developed in Pre-Soviet, Soviet and Post-Soviet time. It also embraces all fifteen countries of the former USSR, and provides a comparative analysis of transformations of institutional landscape across Post-Soviet systems. It will be highly relevant for students and researchers in the fields of higher education and and sociology, particularly those with an interest in historical and comparative studies.

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.