International Higher Education, Spring 2003

News of the Center for International Higher Education

Palgrave-Macmillan Publishers has published The Decline of the Guru: The Academic Profession in Developing Countries, edited by Philip G. Altbach. This book stems from a research project funded by the Ford Foundation. Three additional essays from the project, dealing with Central and Eastern Europe, will appear as a special theme issue of Higher Education in 2003. Earlier, the Center published a limited paperback edition of this book--copies remain available on request from readers in developing countries.

The Center has started a new initiative on women’s higher education worldwide, with Francesca Purcell and Robin Helms providing the leadership. The project’s first product will be a comprehensive inventory of women’s colleges and universities--in preparation for which an international survey has recently been sent out.

One of the Center’s most important research efforts, African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook, will be published in June by Indiana University Press. This book, coedited by Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach, is 900 pages in length. Copies will be made available without cost to African libraries, researchers, and policymakers. This project was funded by the Ford Foundation.

Work is continuing on The Past and Future of Asian Universities. This volume, which features essays on major Asian countries, stems from a project coordinated by Philip G. Altbach and Toru Umakoshi of Nagoya University in Japan. It was funded by the Toyota Foundation with additional funding from the Japanese Ministry of Education and the Japan Foundation Asia Center.

The Center will copublish--with the PROPHE Project at the State University of New York at Albany--A Contested Good? Understanding Private Higher in South Africa, edited by Glenda Kruss and Andre Kraak. This book grew out of a research conference held in South Africa. It will be made available free of charge.

The Center has recently appointed several new staff members. Laura Rumbley is a research associate who is pursuing her doctorate in international higher education. Most recently, she was United States vice consul in El Salvador. Philippa Thiuri will be joining the Center in September from a position at Simmons College. A Kenyan, she is interested in women’s higher education. Robin Matross Helms has joined the Center as assistant editor of International Higher Education and research associate. She will be working on the women’s higher education initiative. Continuing Center staff include Alma Maldonado-Maldonado, Francesca Purcell, Roberta Malee Bassett, and Hong Zhu. Dr. Damtew Teferra, formerly a research associate at the Center, has been appointed research assistant professor at Boston College. He is coeditor-in-chief of the newly launched Journal of Higher Education in Africa.

The Center’s work continues to be supported by the Ford Foundation and by Boston College.