The book studies transformations of European universities in the context of globalization and Europeanization, the questioning of the foundations of the «Golden Age» of the Keynesian welfare state, public sector reforms, demographic changes, the massification and diversification of higher education, and the emergence of knowledge economies. Such phenomena as academic entrepreneurialism and diversified channels of knowledge exchange in European universities are linked to transformations of the state and changes in public sector services. The first, contextual part of the book studies the changing state/university relationships, and the second, empirically-informed part draws from several recent large-scale comparative European research projects.
'. . . my opinion is that this book not only presents a wide and complete report of an extensive research effort, but also opens new directions for future research advancements in this field, that is very relevant both from theoretical considerations and policy-making implications.' Education Economics 'This book is the first work that brings together comprehensive evidence on research and education activities conducted in European universities. The volume is both timely (current discussion on the European Research Area is based on very poor quality comparative evidence) and important for scholars, practitioners, policymakers and students. It provides a critical assessment of the availability and use of inputoutput data and indicators to measure and map European higher education systems. At a time when universities are being asked to play an increasing number of roles, this book represents a foundation on which scholars and policymakers can start to develop the harmonised statistical infrastructure needed to evaluate, assess and support European universities in their changing roles.' Aldo Geuna, University of Sussex, UK Although the role of universities in the knowledge society is increasingly significant, there remains a severe lack of systematic quantitative evidence at the micro-level, with virtually all policy discussion based on country level statistics or case studies. This book redresses the balance by examining original data from universities in six European countries Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. The authors provide micro-based evidence on the evolution of the strategic profile of universities in terms of scientific research, contract research, education and the third mission. The result is a highly innovative book that combines detailed national case studies and comparative institutional analyses with state-of-the-art quantitative techniques. Applying for the first time new generations of nonparametric efficiency measures on a large scale, Universities and Strategic Knowledge Creation will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduate students in higher education, economics of science and technology, and innovation studies. It will also appeal to policymakers and administrators in governments, ministries and universities.
Of particular concern to Geuna (science and technology policy, U. of Sussex) is how the changing structure of university research funding is influencing research behavior. He considers the relationship between the allocation of funds and university scientific research productivity, and examines different aspects of European Union funding of university research. He presents empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that tighter linkages between university and industry, which aim to increase the transfer of knowledge, may produce unintended negative effects. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
In this provocative and broad-ranging work, the authors argue that the ways in which knowledge - scientific, social and cultural - is produced are undergoing fundamental changes at the end of the twentieth century. They claim that these changes mark a distinct shift into a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices and policies. Identifying features of the new mode of knowledge production - reflexivity, transdisciplinarity, heterogeneity - the authors show how these features connect with the changing role of knowledge in social relations. While the knowledge produced by research and development in science and technology is accorded central concern, the
This book shows the importance of knowledge production using requisite terms and frameworks to the broader scheme of epistemic liberation in Africa. The text considers what this veritable direction to knowledge production would mean to other areas of concern in African philosophy such as morality, education and the environment. These contributions are important because the success of decolonising projects in African countries depend upon the methods that underpin envisioned liberative knowledge production in light of Africa’s historical and present condition. This volume appeals to students and researchers working in epistemology and African philosophy.
The dominant global discourse in higher education now focuses on world-class universities inevitably located predominantly in North America, Europe and, increasingly, East Asia. The rest of the world, including Africa, is left to play catch-up. But that discourse should focus rather on the tensions, even contradictions, between excellence and engagement with which all universities must grapple. Here the African experience has much to offer the high-participation and generously resourced systems of the so-called developed world. This book offers a critical review of that experience, and so makes a major contribution to our understanding of higher education.
This discourse on the concept of the ‘new university’ encompasses a number of interconnected topics, ranging from the impacts of the market forces on the old academic territory to current perceptions about relationships between teachers and students. The book focuses on the inside features of the new academia. Some examples of issues and questions covered include: - New media in education, which present opportunities and challenges for both learning students and teachers. But are these new possibilities for all, or just for members of the current ‘internet generation’? Moreover, How can new media be arranged to support a process of generic, collaborative learning? - A discourse on the ‘new student’. Nowadays, terms such as rationality and ‘Bildung’ have emerged coupled with a trend for searching for shortcuts and denying one’s interests in deeper understanding of subjects. But does there really exist a new student on a qualitative level? - Free dialogue has been brought forward by many educationalists as one important way to promote academic knowledge. How does free dialogue really contribute to this objective? The e-book relates such issues to the specific features of the ‘new university’. For a broad insight into the issues forming the education of the future generation, Inside the New University offers important clues for the understanding of the ‘new university’ concept to readers - including educationalists and government policy makers - interested in the qualitative evolution of contemporary educational institutions.
This book investigates and critically interprets the underrepresentation of the global South in global knowledge production. The author analyses the serious bias towards scholars and institutions from this region: he argues that this phenomenon causes serious disadvantages not only for authors and institutions, but global science as well by impeding the flow of fresh, innovative scholarship. This book uses a combination of field theory and world-systems analysis to explain the motives and dynamics behind the geopolitical and societal inequalities in the system of global knowledge production. Subsequently, the author offers several solutions by which these inequalities could be reduced, or even eliminated. This book will be of interest and value to scholars of knowledge inequalities, and knowledge production in the global South. “Márton Demeter’s monograph invokes rich anecdotal, empirical and scientometric evidence to delineate the contours of a world system that preserves the dominance of Western knowledge and scholars and the westernisation or peripheralisation of the rest – a system defined by geopolitical and material inequalities, socio-economic class differences, institutional elitism and publishing biases. Demeter’s work counters narratives that present academia as meritocratic and that justify disparities in world publications on the basis of pure rigour, exposing rather norms and values that perpetuate a western elitist system and peripheralise those who happen to lack this cultural capital. Demeter’s work adds to an expanding field of research documenting how Anglophone standards and biases in journal indexing, peer review and editorial board recruitment marginalise consistently the Global South. His practical and concrete suggestions to subvert this system of horizontal and vertical inequalities could not be timelier and provides momentum to decolonisation movements in higher education across the world.” —Dr Romina Istratii, SOAS University of London, UK “Márton Demeter is a scholar dedicated to revealing the inequality in academic publishing and a strong advocate for scholars from the Global South. This book is an epitome of his effort on this cause. Demeter utilizes his wealth of data including authorships, citations, journal publishers, editorial review board compositions, the reviewers and the editors of journals as strong evidence of inequality with his three-dimensional model of academic stratification. This book is a must-read for scholars both in the Global North and the Global South to reflect on the current state of academic knowledge gatekeeping and production. It will spark a dialogue between scholars to address the dominance of the Global North especially in the field of communication.” —Professor Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University, USA “Márton Demeter’s analysis and critique of the unequal structure of global knowledge production is a powerful contribution to the global justice movement with dramatic implications for what academics in both the Global North and the Global South can do to help science and the humanities live up to their claims of meritocracy and universality. Demeter employs a useful critical combination of the world-systems perspective and Bourdieusian field theory to organize the results of his careful and sophisticated empirical studies of global knowledge production. He is an intrepid protagonist of a more egalitarian human future.” —Professor Christopher Chase-Dunn, University of California, Riverside, USA
This attractively presented edited collection is a welcome analysis of issues facing universities. It consists of 14 chapters by experts who work in university management and economics departments. . . this is an excellent collection. Its value stems from the fact that it enables comparisons to be made and to see that globally the traditional university system is being seriously challenged. The authors in this collection provide a range of perspectives on how the universities in their various locations can begin to respond to these challenges. Anthony Potts, Journal of Educational Administration and History The future of the university, this old European institution, is of utmost interest not only to university students and teachers, but to whole societies; not only in Europe, but in the whole world, as the institution has become global. Nobody can predict it, but the editors of this volume were able to ask incisive questions and collected thoughtful and provocative answers, which can contribute to the debate on the fate of universities in a significant way. Barbara Czarniawska, University of Gothenburg, Sweden While acknowledging the value of better university management, this book resists the idea that an externally imposed standardization and a more homogenous European system of higher education adds up to a desiderata. On the contrary the book editors argue that the persistence of the university and its survival in the future is aided by differences between universities. European Universities in Transition is must reading for students of higher education reform. Francisco O. Ramirez, Stanford University, US This timely and important book provides a critical analysis of the changes and challenges that currently affect European universities. Using both theoretical contributions and applied case studies, leading experts argue that universities as institutions are in need of change although the routes that the process may take are heterogeneous. The authors debate whether the reform of universities suffers from the undue influence of generalisations that do not stand up to scrutiny. It is simply too narrow to focus on strategies such as imitating a university model , hoping that best practices will solve the inefficiencies of the organisation as a whole, or relying on the presence of few external individuals on the universities board to save the difficult relationships between the university and the surrounding economy and society. These ideas ignore the diversity of universities geographically and historically. Above all, they underestimate the power that such diversity holds in making universities survive across centuries. Researchers with an interest in university reform will appreciate this important contribution to the debate, whilst policymakers and university administrators will find this book invaluable in understanding the changes and problems facing European universities and gaining insights on possible solutions.
The recent decade brought about new ways of thinking about universities. European-level educational policies became increasingly influential as the agenda of university reforms was viewed as part of greater Lisbon strategy reforms. National governments adopted the economic concept of the university consistently developed in subsequent official documents of the European Commission. The EU member states currently need to balance their educational policies between the requirements of policies promoted by the EU and the requirements of their national systems. Additionally, the national educational policies are under high pressure due to globalisation. European universities and European academics operate in the midst of these large-scale changes. Their interpretations of and their responses to what is termed «the modernisation agenda of European universities» are at the core of this volume.
