Since establishing its first campus in 1868, the University of California (UC), California's land-grant university, developed into the nation's first multi-campus system in the United States, and is today widely recognized as the world's premier network of public research universities. This short essay provides an historical brief on the role that…

Over recent decades neoliberal ideology, in the guise of market imperatives, has gained resonance within institutions of higher education around the world. Neoliberal proposals are too often characterised as 'realistic' responses to competitive market needs for efficient outcomes, although the proposals themselves are ideological and many of them…

First-Year Seminars (FYS) are among the high-impact practices described by AAC&U. We studied the long-standing First-Year Seminar Program at our public research university for the ways in which writing assignments--individualized for each seminar--help faculty and students achieve program objectives in critical and analytical thinking, the…

The evolution of a research university can take many paths. Described here is a case study of the synergy between the establishment and growth of a primarily graduate school and the commitment to developing a research university, all with the assistance of a separately incorporated non-profit research administration entity. The result has been a…

This article addresses the identity claims of part-time faculty at three types of higher education institutions. Using culture theory and professional identity theory, the article documents that part-time faculty members across institutions have a divided sense of identity. On the one hand, they perceive themselves as professionals based on their…

The Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Project is a collaborative effort among academic scholars and institutional researchers devoted to collecting new data and providing policy-relevant analysis of exactly these questions. Its purpose is to study in depth the undergraduate experience and, at the same time, through systematic…

This article talks about the retired faculty members from different types of institutions around the country that were interviewed to find out how well their preparations for retirement are serving them now. Like other state employees in California, faculty members at public institutions participate in the California Public Employees' Retirement…

The reputation of UC Merced as a student centered research university rested on administration's success in attracting top-flight faculty. This chapter describes how this process started, through choosing the deans, then recruiting the faculty. As faculty arrived, the academic picture came into focus. Not surprisingly, the initial ideas about …

The State University of New York is America's largest comprehensive public university system, with sixty-four campuses, including community colleges, colleges of technology, university colleges, research universities, medical schools, academic medical centers, and specialized campuses in fields as diverse as optometry, ceramics, horticulture,…

The article argues that the principles upon which academic freedom is founded must be elaborated and modified in ways that are relevant to the responsibilities and circumstances of today's universities. The article elucidates the UC's new statement on academic freedom, which honors the long history and tradition of the principles of academic…

The broad vision of an environmental research institute that conducts regional research to inform local decision making has proven to be compelling.

Examines conflict in Texas over whether to increase appropriations for the state's two premier research universities, the University of Texas (Austin) and Texas A&M University, to match comparable institutions in other states, or whether to increase funding to raise the stature of Texas Tech University and the University of Houston. Compares…

Conflicts over authority between the California legislature and the University of California are examined. Compensatory strategies were adopted: authority was used in one area to gain control of a second. The outcomes of these conflicts and their policy implications for university independence and responsiveness are examined. (Author/MLW)

This report prepared for the California State Postsecondary Education Commission concerns base factor calculations for comparison institutions and study survey instruments. The report is divided into three sections. The first section, which comprises most of the volume, presents documentation for the calculation of space factors used in the…

The California Master Plan of 1960 defined relevant student populations and differentiated the missions of the University of California (UC), the California State Universities and Colleges (CSU), and the community colleges. Modern social forces are now complicating those missions. As the demand for high-quality instruction in the liberal arts and…