Higher Education (HE) constitutes a space that calls urgently for new understandings in the contemporary political moment. One way of establishing such an understanding of HE is to consider more fully the work of political theorists in relation to questions of power in the modern nation-state, particularly as these impinge upon the key problem of…

When the newly appointed professor of medicine at the University of Rinteln, Johann Peter Lotichius (1598-1669), delivered an oration entitled "Oratio super fatalibus hoc tempore academiarum in Germania periculis" ("Oration on the pernicious dangers to the universities of contemporary Germany") at said university in February…

Considering the fast-changing times and mounting challenges, higher education institutions (HEIs) became recognized as important change agents in the society but at the same time became more threatened. To that end, recently Magna Charta Universitatum, a declaration stating that intellectual and moral autonomy is the hallmark of any university and…

This collective article discusses the philosophy of modern higher education in Iran, which in this case, optimistically, its history dates back to the founding of "Dar al-fonun" (1851)--if we consider "Dar al-fonun" as a university. Otherwise, its origin can be traced back to the University of Tehran (established in 1934).…

"The Soul of the American University" is a classic and much discussed account of the changing roles of Christianity in shaping American higher education, presented here in a newly revised edition to offer insights for a modern era. As late as the World War II era, it was not unusual even for state schools to offer chapel services or for…

Historically, American higher education aimed to serve a public good, to include attending to students' character development and addressing the myriad needs of society (Yanikoski, 2004). This purpose was fundamental to the educational thought of ancient Greek philosophers, upon which much of higher education rests today. Two themes clearly…

The current state of education focusing on standards and assessment, according to Wu (2004), reduces education to "technical problems and individual deficiencies, subject to surveillance and quality managerial procedures" (p. 308). This work uses Foucault's discourses of discipline and power to understand standardization as a political…

By exploring changemaker principles as a component of social justice art education this research-informed article exemplifies how moral consciousness and responsibility can be developed when training artist teachers. It embeds changemaker philosophy in the higher education art curriculum and demonstrates how this can create ruptures and ripples…

Postmodern university education should provide students with, among other things, a third eye of wisdom to see the world and themselves. The enculturation of Buddhism in university education serves to realize this grand aim. This paper first examines the historical development and practical significance of the Buddhist components in both Chinese…

Historians have often recognised important links between the processes of university and civil service reform in mid-nineteenth-century England. Yet such connections are usually seen as forming part of a wider project of modernising reform with any conservative or counter-revolutionary aims largely discounted. However, as this article suggests,…

When one considers sustainability as a moral action, there are equally complex realities at hand--climate change, resource depletion, water and land rights. One author describes this broad sense of sustainability as "the connection of specific social and environmental problems to the functioning of human and ecological systems" (Jenkins, 2011).…

Jefferson's republicanism--a people-first, mostly bottom-up political vision with a moral underpinning--was critically dependent on general education for the citizenry and higher education for those who would govern. This paper contains an analysis of Jefferson's general philosophy of education by enumerating some of its most fundamental…

This paper examines the role of Harriet Martineau as a public educator in the light of her Unitarian upbringing and heritage. First, it explores the Unitarian contribution to educational philosophy, psychology and practice at the end of the 18th century and then subsequent developments in the 19th, singling out the work of those people who…

Today it can be said with full justification that there is a social mandate to educate the kind of individual who is well trained for the needs of the present day, who is moral, resourceful, and prepared to make decisions in any situation, who is capable of cooperation and intercultural interaction, and who possesses a sense of responsibility for…

We may discover signs of promise in the midst of agony if we make some shifts of perspective. (1) "Our fear of overt violence must be countered by our acknowledgement of covert violence." Covert violence is subtle and more destructive than physical violence because it is the "denial of personhood"--the insinuation by an act or by neglect that a…