International Higher Education, Summer 1998
New Publications
Crafting a Class: College Admissions and Financial Aid, 1955-1994, by Elizabeth A. Duffy and Idana Goldberg. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998. 295 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-691-01683-6. Address: 41 William St., Princeton NJ 08450, USA.
College and university admissions is big business in the United States, helping to determine the financial success of most academic institutions. Financial aid policy and practice are linked to admissions issues, and are part of a strategy to maximize enrollments and ensure that the kinds of students desired by the institution enroll. This volume discusses the development of competitive admissions and financial aid policies at a select group of liberal arts colleges and analyzes how institutional decisions respond to demographic, economic, political and social forces. Most American institutions are not part of this highly competitive pool, and so this book is relevant mainly to the "upper tier" of academe. (PGA)
When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today's College Student, by Arthur Levine and Jeanette S. Cureton. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998. 187 pp. $29,95. ISBN 0-7879-3877-7. Address: 350 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA 94104, USA.
This is a sequel to Levine's 1990 book When Dreams and Heroes Died: A Portrait of Today's College Student. Based on surveys of student affairs officers, college students, and interviews of students, this book focuses on contemporary American student attitudes. Levine and Cureton find American students in the 1990s less pessimistic and more idealistic than the earlier generation of students. Among the topics considered are student views of multiculturalism, politics, personal life, and academic pursuits. (PGA)
Death of the Guilds: Professions, States, and the Advance of Capitalism, 1930 to the Present, by Elliott A. Krause. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996. 320 pp. $37.50. ISBN 0-300-06758-5. Address: POB 209040, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
A consideration of the development of the professions of law, medicine, university teaching, and engineering in five countries--the United States, Italy, Britain, France, and Germany--this volume discusses how society has influenced the professions. The argument is that capitalism and related concerns have increasingly taken control of the training and employment in these professions, and that this has not been a positive force for either professional group power or the needs of the users of these professions. (PGA)
Straight Talk about College Costs and Prices: The Report of the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1998. 322 pp. (paper). ISBN 1-57356-225-4. Address: 4041 Indian School Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85012, USA.
This volume contains the controversial 29-page report of the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education and a range of supporting documentation and research. The report was felt to have been too "soft" on American academic institutions on issues relating to costs. However, the commission was guided by careful research. This book permits the reader to consider both the report and the documentation on which it is based. (PGA)
Seeking Excellence through Independence: Liberating Colleges and Universities from Excessive Regulation, edited by J. MacTaggart. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998. 211 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-7879-0922-X. Address: 350 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA 94104, USA.
The contributors to this book argue that the less regulation the better for American colleges and universities. The authors feel that public as well as private colleges and universities should be freed of regulation and permitted to function as autonomously as possible with due regard for accountability. Competition is the keyword for this volume. Chapters deal with changes in the policies of the states regarding higher education, issues of technology, defining the appropriate roles for accountability and autonomy, and other key topics. (PGA)
College Academics, by Anthony Potts. Charlestown, Australia: William Michael Press, 1997. 267 pp. ISBN 0-6463-36355. Address: POB 403, Charlestown, NSW, Australia 2290.
A case study of the faculty at a College of Advanced Education in Australia, this volume provides analysis of the backgrounds, working lives, attitudes and perspectives of the academic staff of this institution. It is one of the few detailed case studies of the academic profession available. (PGA)
Academic Reforms in the World: Situation and Perspective in the Massification Stage of Higher Education. Hiroshima, Japan: Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, 1997. 303 pp. (paper). Address: 2-2 Kagamiyama 1-chome, Higashi-Hiroshima 739, Japan.
A report on a seminar on the topic of the implications of mass higher education in international perspective, this volume features several comparative essays on mass higher education, and country reports from the United States, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore, and China. This is one of a number of research reports issued by the Research Institute for Higher Education. Further information can be obtained from the Institute.
The Student Aid Game: Meeting Need and Rewarding Talent in American Higher Education, by Michael S. McPherson and Morton Owen Shapiro. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998. 160 pp. $29.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-691-05783-4. Address: 41 William St., Princeton NJ 08450, USA.
This volume examines how undergraduate education is financed in the United States. It specifically examines assistance to students from individual institutions and governmental agencies as well as families. The authors argue that the federal government needs to focus on maintaining access, and that individual colleges should constrain their search for competitive advantage and should direct assistance to those students who need it. This volume comes at a time when financial aid to students has become a major point of controversy in American higher education. (PGA)
Managed Professionals: Unionized Faculty and Restructuring Academic Labor, by Gary Rhoades. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. 351 pp. ISBN 0-7914-3716-7. Address: State University Plaza, Albany, NY 12246, USA.
While only a minority of faculty in American colleges and universities are unionized, this volume has relevance to our understanding not only of faculty unions but also of the changing nature of the management of higher education in the United States. Rhoades analyzes union contracts as a way of looking at the nature of academic work, labor-management relations in higher education, and the changing nature of the academic profession. This book has relevance internationally because of the rapid changes in the profession worldwide. (PGA)
The Employment of English: Theory, Jobs, and the Future of Literary Studies, by Michael Bérubé. New York: New York University Press, 1998. 272 pp. $17.95 paper, $55 cloth. ISBN 0-8147-1301-7. Address: 70 Washington Sq. South, New York, NY 10012, USA.
A series of essays relating to literary criticism, the profession of English in American higher education, academic standards, academicpublishing, and related topics, this volume is a lively critique of current trends in American higher education, and especially in the field of English. (PGA)
Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education, by Martha C. Nussbaum. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997. 328 pp. $26. ISBN 0-674-17948-X. Address: 26 Garden St., Cambridge, MA. 02138, USA.
Martha Nussbaum's wide ranging discussion of liberal education and its evolution at the end of the century is both thoughtful and concrete. She supports the idea of liberal education, and feels that it should be shaped by institutional realities at individual colleges and universities, and by broader intellectual trends in American and world society. She is committed to the internationalization of the curriculum so that students can understand the realities of the global environment, and recognizes the value of such new fields as women's studies and African American studies. Nussbaum, a philosopher who holds a professorship in a law school, links her contemporary discussion with classical references to Greek philosophers. She marshals the support of Plato and Aristotle for modern liberal education reform. If allusions to classical Greek thinkers were not enough, the book is based in part on an examination of trends in liberal education in an interesting array of American colleges and universities. Nussbaum discusses how education at such diverse institutions as Notre Dame and Brigham Young has evolved. She provides snippets of observations of teachers she has observed in fields as diverse as African American studies and Germanic literature. Nussbaum does not have a specific program to advocate. Rather, she reflects on the state of American undergraduate education and advocates continued change and reform as part of a commitment to the core values of liberal education. (PGA)
Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1997. 413 pp. ISBN 92-64-15622-4. Address: OECD Publications, 2 rue Andre Pascal, 75775 Paris 16, France.
This annual compendium of educational statistics relating to the OECD member states provides comparative data on 41 key indicators of educational progress. The bulk of the material relates to K12 education, but there is material that will be of interest to higher education--such information as rates of entry to postsecondary education, foreign student enrollments, graduates at the tertiary level, production of high-level qualifications relating to the labor force, among others. Discussion of the policy context, overall trends and analysis of some of the data are provided as well. This is a valuable statistical volume for the industrialized nations. A companion volume, Educational Policy Analysis, 1997, is also available. (PGA)
History of Higher Education Annual, 1997. Address: Higher Education Program, Pennsylvania State university, 403 S. Allen St., University park, PA 16801 USA. (Individual subscriptions are $12 in the United States and $17 for the rest of the world. Back issues are also available.)
The Annual, now in its 16th year of publication, is one of the main sources for research on the history of higher education. The focus mainly is on the United States, but there are occasional articles dealing with other countries. Many of the articles have direct relevance to contemporary issues, as, for example, a consideration of the development of state higher education policy in California (1996 issue) or a paper on patterns of access to European universities in historical perspective. (PGA)
Student Movements in Assam, by Meeta Deka. New Delhi, India: Vikas Publishing House, 1996. 283 pp. Rs. 325. ISBN 0-7069-9882-0. Address: Vikas Publishing House, 576 Masjid Rd., Jangpura, New Delhi 110014, India.
A comprehensive study of student political activism in the Indian state of Assam from 1853 to 1985, this book provides an overview of the rise and fall of activist movements. The book covers the pre-independence struggle as well as post-independence activist movements, disputes concerning language, and related trends. (PGA)
Failing the Future: A Dean Looks at Higher Education in the 21st Century, by Annette Kolodny. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1998. $24.95. ISBN 0-8223-2186-6. Address: Duke University Press, Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708 USA.
Kolodny served as dean of the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona, and has taught at a number of other American universities. She reflects on her experience in academic administration and discusses future trends in American higher education. Among other topics, she discusses the process of change in higher education, issues of academic standards, tenure. (PGA)
Manual de Auto-evaluación de la Universidad, by Miguel Angel Escotet. Bogota: Editorial Universidad de los Andes, 1998. 224 pp. $20. ISBN 958-9057-96-9. Address: UniAndes-MDU Apartado Aéreo 4976, Bogota, D.C., Colombia.
University evaluation, accreditation, and accountability are issues of growing importance worldwide. This book discusses the entire methodology of the permanent self-evaluation of higher education institutions: evaluation research designs, techniques, and instruments. It also includes a chapter questioning the major components of the university that may constitute macro and micro issues for institutional study. Major emphasis is placed on the study of attitude and attitude change within the university community. (Miguel Angel Escotet)
Saldo Rojo: Crisis en la Educación Superior, by Constanza Cubillos Reyes. Bogota: Planeta Colombiana Editorial, 1998. 446 pp. $ 32. ISBN 958-614-628-6. Address: Planeta Colombiana Editorial, Carrera 68A No. 22-55, Bogota, Colombia.
Saldo Rojo, by an investigative journalist Cubillos Reyes, is a remarkably comprehensive and well-documented analysis of Colombian higher education. A bestseller in Columbia, the book discusses the proliferation of low-quality, lucrative private universities, governance, funding issues, faculty, study programs, political connections, and much more. This is a provocative view of the inappropriate application of free market policies to higher education in Colombia. The book's observations could be applied to other developing countries. (Miguel Angel Escotet)