Background/Context: The traditional literature on the history of higher education in the United States focuses on linear explanations of the inexorable growth of the size, mission, and importance of colleges and universities. That approach ignores or minimizes a recurrent strain of discontent with the higher education sector, especially from…

This article argues that ideas from the ancient past supply insight about the future of Chinese universities. I make this case by outlining three claims about the nature and purpose of education in Homer, Plato, and Augustine. I propose that conversations based on these ideas illuminate central underlying problems facing Chinese higher education…

This article revisits Gopinathan's and Lee's and Gopinathan's arguments about the relationship and role of the developmental state and education in the era of globalisation. The paper first discusses the role and impact of the developmental state and globalisation on Singapore's higher education since 1990 to set the context. Drawing upon…

Higher education is going through as significant a change as at any time in the last century. Recommendations about how to resolve these issues have been offered by numerous government commissions, think tanks and foundations. A seldom used approach is to look back to consider what others have said and suggested in previous eras. The author…

The State of Qatar, in cooperation with the RAND Corporation, launched in 2002 an ambitious educational reform and development plan, "Education for a New Era," which included, among other things, the instating of English as the medium of instruction (EMI) in mathematics, science, and technology in the K-12 system. From the start, the…

We begin this paper by outlining the "classical" debate on the idea of a university. We then proceed to show how this intellectual ideal has been compromised by successive processes of reform privileging paradigms of managerialism and commodification at the expense of intellectualism in shaping and defining UK higher education, with…

This paper provides some editorial context for a suite of three papers, each of which focuses on pedagogical considerations at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI). The paper first identifies the distinctive characteristics of the University, its history, context and purpose. It moves on to explore a major initiative in blended…

This paper considers the history of Québec's higher education system and the reforms that have contributed to the role of education in the province. Québec's education system has repeatedly been a site for social and political transformation; most recently, reevaluation of education's role in the province has revealed a tension between…

The history of higher education has revealed all the forms of structural change associated with growth. The following focuses on a special form that involves growth, specialization, and proliferation, and applies mainly but not exclusively to universities. In search for a descriptive term, I have settled on the concept of "structural…

This article takes stock of the complex scenario of the European education space in its past, present and future developments, which highlights the priorities of the modernisation, improvement and convergence of the goals for education and training systems in the knowledge and learning society. The critical case of teacher education is then…

Prior to 2003, virtual universities were being created at a rate that would question the usual perception that higher education rarely changed, or changed (if at all) at a glacial speed. No comprehensive study of what was actually being created had been done; nor had anyone tapped the experiences of the developers in the states to see what was…

Charles Carter's views on higher education are discussed, and the educational history of the university as an institution is examined. Carter views universities as a diverse set of institutions linked in a comprehensive framework to provide flexible and fair access to higher learning in the sciences and the arts. (RM)

This article looks at knowledge production in higher education (HE) from the point of view of how a given HE institution defines itself within the broader context of "the idea of a university". In this regard, the article makes a critical analysis and interpretation of the literature on the central question of "the idea of a university", and the…

Traces the gradual shift toward autonomy in Indian university administration. (Author/DN)

Focusing on the medieval university during its formative years (late 1100s and early 1200s), the author addresses questions such as "How did the ambitions of students and masters influence the organization and curriculum of these new institutions?" Concludes that society was served by these universities despite the indication that the…