Over the past few decades, US business and industry have been transformed by the advances and redundancies produced by the knowledge economy. The workplace has changed, and much of the work differs from that performed by previous generations. Can human capital accumulation in the United States keep pace with the evolving demands placed on it, and how can the workforce of tomorrow acquire the skills and competencies that are most in demand? Education, Skills, and Technical Change explores various facets of these questions and provides an overview of educational attainment in the United States and the channels through which labor force skills and education affect GDP growth. Contributors to this volume focus on a range of educational and training institutions and bring new data to bear on how we understand the role of college and vocational education and the size and nature of the skills gap. This work links a range of research areas—such as growth accounting, skill development, higher education, and immigration—and also examines how well students are being prepared for the current and future world of work.
Universities are fundamental to the contemporary knowledge economy. They directly and indirectly support economic growth in both developing and advanced economies. In addition to their traditional teaching and research functions, they often also have important roles in supporting regional development and urban regeneration, as well as involvement in fostering international relations, in , cultural developments and in enhancing social cohesion. While higher education institutions in many countries are often assigned key roles in economic and social policy prescriptions, exactly what those roles are and how they should be carried out are often unclear. Universities and the Knowledge Economy provides a much-needed theoretical and empirical analysis of these functions, taking a critical look at the complex connections between knowledge creation, the knowledge economy, and higher education today. This volume: Brings together work on these topics by international experts, reporting and analysing recent policy developments and research Shows the significance of the university’s role in the knowledge economy, and the precise roles that it can play. Presents a range of studies showing how universities interact with other knowledge producers and users, and how these interactions can be managed to achieve the most effective applications of knowledge Universities are multi-faceted institutions that everywhere are accorded special status. Universities and the Knowledge Economy examines how these institutions carry our knowledge production and application, and how their distinctive characters affect what they do. . This title is of both intellectual and operational relevance, and would be suitable for those interested in higher education and policy and practice, and in the theory of higher education. Paul Temple is Reader in Higher Education Management and Co-Director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.
the political leadership of cities, states, and nations; successful models of partnerships between higher education and the private sector; and future challenges and opportunities facing the modern university." --Book Jacket.
A collection of essays that provides an analysis of the potential future of higher education and its subsequent impact on society. It analyzes the variety of professional, intellectual, social and political factors that govern our individual and collective behavior, and how these forces undermine society's traditional goals for higher education.
Universities have been subjected to continuous government reforms since the 1980s, to make them ‘entrepreneurial’, ‘efficient’ and aligned to the predicted needs and challenges of a global knowledge economy. Under increasing pressure to pursue ‘excellence’ and ‘innovation’, many universities are struggling to maintain their traditional mission to be inclusive, improve social mobility and equality and act as the ‘critic and conscience’ of society. Drawing on a multi-disciplinary research project, University Reform, Globalisation and Europeanisation (URGE), this collection analyses the new landscapes of public universities emerging across Europe and the Asia-Pacific, and the different ways that academics are engaging with them.
This is the first book to critically analyze the future of higher education systems in the four BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - and the USA, analyzing academic salaries, contracts and working conditions and how national policy will affect the academic profession in each context.
Springer is proud to announce that 'Universities in the Knowledge Society' has received the ASHE-CIHE award for Significant Research on International Higher Education. Congratulations to Timo Aarrevaara, Martin Finkelstein, Glen A. Jones, Jisun Jung and all contributors! This book explores the complex, multi-faceted relationships between national research and innovation systems and higher education. The transition towards knowledge societies/economies is repositioning the role of the university and transforming the academic profession. The volume provides a foundational introduction to the concepts of knowledge society and knowledge economy, and these concepts ground the detailed case studies of eighteen systems, located across five continents. Each case study was written by a leading expert in that jurisdiction, and provides a critical analysis of the research and development infrastructure, the role of universities, and the implications for the academic profession. The book describes how nations in various geographic regions and at various stages of economic maturity are restructuring their university systems to adapt to the new imperatives, and provides a cross-case analysis identifying common themes and distinctive features. In telling the story of higher education’s on-going global metamorphosis, the contributing authors place current developments in the context of the university’s historic evolution, survey the changing metrics that national governments are adopting to measure university performance, and describe a new international project, the Academic Profession in the Knowledge-based Society [APiKS] that involved a common survey of academics in more than twenty countries to take the pulse of developments “on the ground” while documenting the challenges confronting knowledge workers in the new economy.
Today, universities around the world find themselves going beyond the traditional roles of research and teaching to drive the development of local economies through collaborations with industry. At a time when regions with universities are seeking best practices among their peers, Shiri M. Breznitz argues against the notion that one university's successful technology transfer model can be easily transported to another. Rather, the impact that a university can have on its local economy must be understood in terms of its idiosyncratic internal mechanisms, as well as the state and regional markets within which it operates. To illustrate her argument, Breznitz undertakes a comparative analysis of two universities, Yale and Cambridge, and the different outcomes of their attempts at technology commercialization in biotech. By contrasting these two universities—their unique policies, organizational structure, institutional culture, and location within distinct national polities—she makes a powerful case for the idea that technology transfer is dependent on highly variable historical and environmental factors. Breznitz highlights key features to weigh and engage in developing future university and economic development policies that are tailor-made for their contexts.