The inspiration for this timely book is the pressing need for fresh ideas and innovations in U.S. higher education. At the heart of the volume is the realization that higher education must evolve in fundamental ways if it is to respond to changing professional, economic, and technological circumstances, and if it is to successfully reach and prepare a vast population of students—traditional and nontraditional alike—for success in the coming decades. This collection of provocative articles by leading scholars, writers, innovators, and university administrators examines the current higher education environment and its chronic resistance to change; the rise of for-profit universities; the potential future role of community colleges in a significantly revised higher education realm; and the emergence of online learning as a means to reshape teaching and learning and to reach new consumers of higher education. Combining trenchant critiques of current conditions with thought-provoking analyses of possible reforms and new directions, Reinventing Higher Education is an ambitious exploration of possible future directions for revitalized American colleges and universities.

Higher education is a complex package of issues which never seems to leave the limelight. The primary wedge issues are tuition cost, access, accountability, financial aid, government funding, sports and their place within higher education, academic results, societal gains as a whole in terms of international competition, and continuing education. This new book examines new directions in this ever-changing, vital and controversial field which has a profound effect on society.

Political economy has been an essential realm of inquiry and has attracted myriad intellectual adherents for much of the period of modern scholarship. The discipline's formal split into the distinct studies of political science and economics in the nineteenth-century, while advantageous for certain scientific developments, has biased the way economists and political scientists think about many issues, and has placed artificial constraints on the study of many important social issues. This volume calls for a reaffirmation of the importance of the unified study of political economy, and explores the frontiers of the interaction between politics and markets. This volume brings together intellectual leaders of various areas, drawing upon state-of-the-art theoretical and empirical analysis from each of the underlying disciplines. Each chapter, while beginning with a survey of existing work, focuses on profitable lines of inquiry for future developments. Particular attention is devoted to fields of active current development.

This book examines equity from the standpoint of mathematics education - an excellent forum for the topic, since the results are quantifiable and the disparity in performance is stark.

This book examines the many ways in which economic concepts, theories and models can be used to examine issues in higher education. The topics explored in the book include how students make college-going decisions, the payoffs to students and society from going to college, markets for higher education services, demand and supply in markets for higher education, why and how state and federal governments intervene in higher education markets, college and university revenues and expenditures, how institutions use net-pricing strategies and non-price product-differentiation strategies to pursue their goals and to compete in higher education markets, as well as issues related to faculty labor markets. The book is written for both economists and non-economists who study higher education issues and provides readers with background information and thorough explanations and illustrations of key economic concepts. In addition to reviewing the contributions economists have made to the study of higher education, it also examines recent research in each of the major topical areas. The book is policy-focused and each chapter analyses how contemporary higher education policies affect the behaviour of students, faculty and/or institutions of higher education. "Toutkoushian and Paulsen attempted a daunting task: to write a book on the economics of higher education for non-economists that is also useful to economists. A book that could be used for reference and as a textbook for higher education classes in economics, finance, and policy. They accomplish this tough balancing act with stunning success in a large volume that will serve as the go-to place for anyone interested in the history and current thinking on the economics of higher education.” William E. Becker, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Economics, Indiana University

This volume is divided into two thematic parts: economic growth (or its absence) in developing countries; and contributions to the debate on the role of the state versus the market. It outlines possible policy prescriptions of relevance both in the North and South.