International Higher Education, Summer 1997

New Publications

This column is intended to keep our readers aware of current publications in the field of higher education. We provide a brief description of the listing and indicate the address of the publisher or distributor so that items may be easily obtained. While the preponderance of material listed here is published in the United States or other industrialized nations, we will try to list books published in other parts of the world as well.

Planning and Management for a Changing Environment., edited by Marvin W. Peterson, David D. Dill, and Lisa A. Mets. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997. 577 pp. ISBN 0-7879-0849-5. Address: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 350 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA 94104.

The underlying assumption of this important volume is that the American academic environment is changing and that colleges and universities must understand the nature of change. Twenty-seven chapters dealing with such issues as statewide coordination, leadership and planning, changing institutional culture, fiscal strategies, the role of faculty, assessment issues, new technologies and others. This book is an excellent handbook for higher educational change and the context of reform. (PGA)

An Empire of Schools: Japan's Universities and the Molding of a National Power Elite, by Robert L. Cutts. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. 268 pp. $29.95. ISBN 1-56324-843-3. Address: M. E. Sharpe Publishers, 80 Business Park Dr., Armonk, NY 10504.

This book attempts to put a new spin on an old storyÜhow a few prestigious universities dominate the power elite in Japan. It provides some interesting insights on this theme, but ultimately it does not get us much beyond what we already know. Journalist Cutts has written a multifaceted attack on the domination by the major universities, especially the University of Tokyo, on Japanese business and government. He traces the origins of the modern university system to the Meiji period and argues that they are an extension of the traditional feudal system. It is not surprising, therefore, that a hierarchy quickly emerged, and that it has had remarkable stability over time. Cutts points out that Japan's elite is more concentrated in these few top institutions than is true for comparable schools in other countries.

The Japanese system, he argues, is a kind of perverted meritocracy. Everyone has an opportunity to take the entrance examinations of the prestigious universities and to pass them, but much depends on which secondary schools and jukus were attended. Once admitted to the top universities, meritocracy breaks down, since the graduates of these schools dominate the top rungs of Japanese society. Graduates of the University of Tokyo are "tracked" to the large corporations and powerful government ministries. Alumni ties count for a great deal.

The quality of education imparted at the top institutions, Cutts argues, is quite poor. Neither teaching nor learning is taken seriously. Students, having struggled with their entrance examinations at the culmination of a highly competitive secondary education, are in no mood for serious study, and faculty are happy enough to let things slide. Cutts makes much of the indifferent quality of undergraduate education at the top universities, pointing out that the first two years of general education at the University of Tokyo does not take place on the main campus, and consists of large lectures classes that many students do not bother to attend.

Much of An Empire of Schools is taken up with an attack on the structure of Japanese society. Cutts says "...much of Japan seems to outsiders to be run from behind closed doors by "good ol' boys" who seem to be able to move the goalposts with great facility when it benefits them. Everything is liquid; nothing is fixed." All of this starts in the prestigious universities, where the social and professional ties that are so crucial to the power elite are forged.

Ostensibly an analysis of the links between the universities and the elite in Japan, this book discusses a variety of other matters as well. The book reads more like a series of essays around related themes than a clear analysis. For example, there are several chapters on the role of women in Japanese education and society. While interesting, this discussion does not relate directly to the main theme of the book. There is also a chapter that discusses, among other things, the rewriting of textbooks, inheritance issues, and models of consensus. Such digressions, and there are many, detract from the coherence of the argument.

An Empire of Schools has nothing good to say about the elite sector of Japanese education. He considers only a tiny segment of the Japanese higher education system, and hardly even considers the top private universities. He uses virtually no Japanese language sources in the book - and there is a wealth of research and analysis on higher education issues readily available. This is not a nuanced analysis of a highly complex system. It is, rather, a broadside attack. The reader would have benefited much more from a more careful discussion of the realities of higher education in Japan. We need to know more about campus life, about the links between various segments of the higher education system (not just the University of Tokyo) to the employment system. We need to know what is really happening on campus. There have, for examples, been some significant efforts at reforming higher education, and some Japanese universities, including many in the private sector, care deeply about the nature of the curriculum and the quality of education. An Empire of Schools provides a partial analysis of a complex reality. (PGA)

The Rise of American Research Universities: Elites and Challengers in the Postwar Era, by Hugh Davis Graham and Nancy Diamond. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. 319 pp. $39.95. ISBN: 0-8018-5425-3. Address: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD. 21218.

This unique and important study adds an important dimension to the debate concerning the ranking of American research universities, and the shaping of the elite sector of American higher education. The focus here is on those universities that have challenged the top institutions for preeminence in American higher education in the period following World War II. The authors look at a variety of measures, including faculty publications and productivity, research funding, and fellowships in an effort to provide an objective measurement to prestige rankings of institutions.

Expansion and Structural Change: Higher Education in Germany, the United States and Japan, 1870-1990, by Paul Windolf. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1997. 278 pp. $55. ISBN: 0-8133-9008-7. Address: Westview Publishers, 5500 Central Ave., Boulder, CO 80301.

The focus of this book is on the story of the expansion of higher education in several key countries in the past centuryÜthe period of dramatic growth of higher education worldwide. German social scientist Windolf brings a variety of archival sources to bear to analyze how expansion took place and what its consequences were. The interplay between social mobility, expansion, and the cycles of university policy are explored in the cases of the United States, Germany, and Japan, with additional discussion of several other European countries. (PGA)

Revitalizing General Education in a Time of Scarcity: A Navigational Chart for Administrators and Faculty, by Sandra L. Kanter, Zelda F. Gamson, and Howard B. London. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997. 196 pp. ISBN 0-205-26257-0. Address: Allyn and Bacon, Publishers, 160 Gould St., Needham, MA 02194.

General education is under constant reappraisal. This book examines efforts to revitalize and reform general education. The authors are committed to the importance of offering general education to American undergraduate students. They have examined more than 70 institutions to determine how general education can be effectively changed to meet contemporary needs. Issues such as the politics of curriculum reform, culture and community on campus, and the process of change are examined. (PGA)

Amércia Latina: Universidades en Transición (Latin America: Universities in Transition), by Simon Schwartzman. Washington, D.C.: Organization of American States, INTERAMER 61, Serie Educativa, 1996.

In América Latina: Universidades en Transición, Simon Schwartzman moves from the historical origins of the university to its evolution in Latin America and the characteristics that underlie the dilemmas facing higher education in the region today. He reminds us that although the early influences on the development of the Latin American university were distinctly European, educators made different choices in critical areas that resulted in an autochthonous model for higher education in this region. He proceeds adeptly from a broad comparative perspective to a regional one until he is focused on those key contemporary issues being discussed from MÚxico to the Southern Cone - financing and the need to respond to severe economic constraints, enrollment expansion, the changing profiles of students and professors, the distinct roles of private and public institutions, the development of graduate programs, and support for research.

Schwartzman uses examples from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and MÚxico to document trends in the development of higher education since the 1950s. Although these countries offer some contrasts and illustrate different policy directions, it is unfortunate that examples from the poorer countries--such as Ecuador, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Paraguay, or Peru--have not been included since they might have broadened the important regional perspective that the book provides. Not surprisingly, Schwartzman draws heavily on the experience of Brazil--including a chapter at the end of the book on the evolution of private education.

América Latina provides an important summary of problems and policy decisions made in recent years. Schwartzman provides an insightful analysis of different solutions and their implications in each of the countries studied. In his conclusion he reminds us that the political constituencies--student federations, faculty, unions, and military governments--that shaped policy in the past are being replaced by new voices that will have an increasing role in shaping policy in the future--parents of university students, individuals and institutions who employ university graduates, and citizens who pay the bill for higher education. These new constituencies will place quality and accountability high on their list of demands.

Although pieces of this story have been captured in articles published in recent years, few books have been published that so effectively capture the issues preoccupying policymakers and researchers interested in this region. América Latina is a most welcome addition to the literature. (Liz Reisberg, Boston College)

Situación y Principales Dinamicas de Transformación de la Educación Superior en América Latina (The current situation and main dynamics of transformation of higher education in Latin America), by Carmen Garcia Guadilla. Caracas, Venezuela: Centro Regional para la Education Superior en America Latina y el Caribe (UNESCO/CRESALC), 1996, 287 pp. ISBN: 980-6401-09-3 Address: CRESALC, Apdo. postal 68394, Caracas 1060A, Venezuela.

This is an interesting study that compares 19 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean - including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. The book attempts to answer two important questions regarding the transformations of Latin American higher educational systems: what is the current situation in universities in these countries; and what are the main forces that stimulate such transformation?

The research describes and classifies the higher educational systems of each country, comparing differences such as socioeconomic diversity, national organizational systems, grading nomenclatures, students, the number of graduates, teachers, and financial issues. Then, based on the analysis, the study concentrates its attention on the educational indicators or measures of systems efficiency in the region. These figures include an account of reforms currently underway in planning or under study in some countries.

Of particular interest is the book's attempt to identify gaps of information in particular areas. The unavailability and inconsistency of data in some countries required the author to narrow the study to those in which more complete information was available. The author does point out, however, that institutions in such countries are beginning to collaborate with a goal toward developing more efficient methods of information collection. (Guillermo Galvan, Boston College)