Enrollment in institutions of higher education around the world is growing. Some scholars have suggested that one reason for this expansion is that the role of higher education has shifted over the last 50 years from an elite to a mass institution. This book discusses the worldwide transformation of higher education from multiple perspectives.

This book explores some of the major forces and changes in higher education across the world between 1945 and 2015. This includes the explosions of higher education institutions and enrollments, a development captured by the notion of massification. There were also profound shifts in the financing and economic role of higher education reflected in the processes of privatization of universities and curricula realignments to meet the shifting demands of the economy. Moreover, the systems of knowledge production, organization, dissemination, and consumption, as well as the disciplinary architecture of knowledge underwent significant changes. Internationalization emerged as one of the defining features of higher education, which engendered new modes, rationales, and practices of collaboration, competition, comparison, and commercialization. External and internal pressures for accountability and higher education’s value proposition intensified, which fuelled struggles over access, affordability, relevance, and outcomes that found expression in the quality assurance movement.

Transformation of the University imagines preferable futures for the university, building hope for the institution’s necessary transformation. It transcends old criticisms and presents fresh ideas on how the institution might be conceived, organised and put into practice while safeguarding that which makes it a university – the pursuit of knowledge. This book is divided into three main parts: Part One – ‘Knowledge’ assumes the role of the university in generating knowledge for the benefit of society; Part Two – ‘Cultural Growth’ expands on how the university might contribute to and benefit from the cultural growth of society, with both explicit and implicit connections to social and epistemic (in)justice; and Part Three – ‘Institutions’ focuses on imaginative processes for enacting the university as an institution that meets the unforeseen future challenges facing societies around the world. With contributions from scholars across the world, Transformation of the University is an essential read for all academics, practitioners, institutional leaders and broad social thinkers who are concerned with the future of the university and its contributions to society.

ÿWritten by pioneers in the field of online learning,ÿLeading the e-Learning Transformation of Higher Educationÿis a professional text that offers insights and guidance to the rising generation of leaders in the field of higher education. It explains how to integrate online learning into an institution during a period of rapid social and institutional change. This important volume: ? Shares success stories, interviews, cases and insights from a broad range of leadership styles ? Reviews how technology is transforming higher education worldwide ? Provides an overview of how distance education is organized in a range of institutional settings ? Breaks down current leadership challenges in both unit operations and institutional policy This volume launches the new Stylus series that is aimed at the online learning and distance education market. It offers readers the opportunity to benefit from the collective experience and expertise of top leaders in the field. All of the contributors have held leadership roles in national and international distance education organizations. Five of the contributors have been recognized as Sloan Consortium Fellows in 2010 and they have all collaborated with the Institute for Emerging Leaders in Online Learning. These contributors have helped pave the way and now share their insights, advice, and broad vision with the future leaders of the field.ÿ

Enrollment in institutions of higher education around the world is growing. Some scholars have suggested that one reason for this expansion is that the role of higher education has shifted over the last 50 years from an elite to a mass institution. This book discusses the worldwide transformation of higher education from multiple perspectives.

The Sociology of Higher Education: Reproduction, Transformation and Change in a Global Era provides an exciting and conceptually rich approach to the sociology of higher education. It offers innovative perspectives on the future of universities within the new and emerging research sub-field of the sociology of global higher education. The twenty-first century has witnessed wide-ranging structural and ideological transformations in higher education which have created both a sense of opportunity, as well as crisis and loss in the urgent debates around the legitimate roles of the university in the 21st century. The chapters represent a diverse and vibrant field, illustrating a sociological imagination and a dynamic engagement with the key challenges facing higher education, and confirming continuing inequalities through internationalisation. This book is comprised of a broad selection of articles originally published in the British Journal of Sociology of Education.

“Path-breaking . . . offers a rich, encompassing, global perspective on education . . . articulates an educationally-grounded vision of contemporary society.” —David John Frank, University of California, Irvine Only 150 years ago, the majority of the world’s population was largely illiterate. Today, not only do most people over fifteen have basic reading and writing skills, but 20 percent of the population attends some form of higher education. What are the effects of such radical, large-scale change? David Baker argues that the education revolution has transformed our world into a schooled society—that is, a society that is actively created and defined by education. Drawing on neo-institutionalism, The Schooled Society shows how mass education interjects itself and its ideologies into culture at large: from the dynamics of social mobility, to how we measure intelligence, to the values we promote. The proposition that education is a primary rather than a “reactive” institution is then tested by examining the degree to which education has influenced other large-scale social forces, such as the economy, politics, and religion. Rich, groundbreaking, and globally-oriented, The Schooled Society sheds light on how mass education has dramatically altered the face of society and human life. “One of the most important books in the sociology of education in quite some time. . . . It will solidify [Baker’s] reputation as one of today’s leading sociologists of education and comparative and international education.” —Alan R. Sadovnik, Rutgers University “David Baker explores formal education as a social-cultural force in its own right. . . . The Schooled Society offers a powerful alternative perspective on the global educational revolution.” —Maria Charles, University of California, Santa Barbara