DeAngelis systematizes some of the important factors or variables that distinguish national systems, regions, and individual institutions from each other in terms of their response to globalization. He argues that local traditions; bureaucratic and policy networks; shared knowledge; interest group mobilization; public policy priorities; and policy creativity or ineptitude play into the response to globalizing forces. Not only do such factors shape the particular forms that globalization takes, but they also provide the basis for resistance and countervailing tendencies. He illustrates his argument through a comparison of France and Australia, and shows how they exemplify diversity and resistance to global uniformity and the elimination of the local.

Leite refers to the establishment of institutional evaluation systems in Latin America as a tool for what she calls the capitalist redesign of universities. By capitalist redesign, she means the implementation of institutional strategies internally directed to increased efficiency and effectiveness, and externally directed to the new publics and to the market visibility of the institution. Leite presents a general picture of the 1990 reforms of higher education in Latin America, followed by a more detailed description of the Brazilian situation and a case study of one university to illustrate the use of institutional evaluation as a tool for change.

 

Negishi and Sun summarize the results of a search of the major abstracting databases to collect statistics on the numbers of papers by countries, years and fields. Their analysis is based on four databases: 1) INSPEC, compiled by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, UK; 2) CA, compiled by the Chemical Abstracts Service; 3) COMPENDEX, compiled by Engineering Information, U.S.; and 4) EMBASE, relating to medical papers and compiled by Elsevier Science Publishers, The Netherlands. The authors find that Japan ranks second to the U.S. in terms of the number of papers registered in science databases worldwide. They suspect that the science databases do not present a complete picture of scholarship in Japan because many papers are written in Japanese for domestic readers. The authors foresee Japanese scholars writing more papers in international languages.

Graham and Diamond argue that ‘new’ American research universities did emerge from the competitive post-World War Two scramble to the hegemony of traditional elites. Their observations on the source of advantage to universities include the following: 1) the magnitude of the advantage that private universities derived during that period as a result of their affluence, traditions, and entrepreneurial freedom from the constraints imposed by legislatures and public bureaucracies; 2) the benefit of having a medical school on campus; and 3) the search for emerging new elites.

This book is divided into two parts: the first considers where American higher education is and has been with respect to equity and excellence; the second considers where American higher education is headed by examining the major policy issues that present themselves to both educational institutions and policy makers at the state and federal levels. While the authors find that American higher education does well when evaluated on the grounds of ‘excellence’, they are less optimistic about success regarding society’s equity objective. Bowen, Kurzweil and Tobin do not advocate for systemic reform but do see value in steady infusions of dollars and talent for continued success at the undergraduate and professional levels.

Cox describes the ascent of the Apollo Group’s University of Phoenix, and then addresses the emergence of the for-profit ethos in traditional academic institutions. Cox believes that this profit-orientation will unwittingly fail students in both a moral and fiduciary sense. Cox foresees American higher education being split in two – with expensive, elite private schools (and a handful of ‘public ivies’) on one hand and resource-scarce public institutions on the other side. These resource-scarce schools will be forced to compete against the elite institutions and will either destroy themselves in the process or will adopt for-profit tactics. Cox advocates for changes to higher education policy prioritizing the cultivation of well-rounding, thoughtful citizens in universities rather than short-term financial gain.

This book is a collection of writings produced while Brodhead was Dean of Yale College. The first section focuses how undergraduates can get the most from their undergraduate education. Later sections focus on familiar challenges of the modern university – ranging from free speech to diversity issues to questions of constructing a coherent curriculum.

Coronil questions the U.S. presumption he finds embedded in the position paper that preceded the seminar on the Responsibility in Crisis. First, rather than being apart from society, the university’s sacred in the context of the societal transformations in which it is located. To remain sacred, he argues, the university works to conceal those connections; to understand how this sacred works, we most look more closely at the ways in which the university is embedded in the mundane, and in history. The global ambition of the North American university is associated with the increasing concentration of knowledge production to its advantage; this inequality is magnified by the presumption in the position paper’s title. Invoking the paper’s invitation of heresy, Coronil asks whether the way in which the North American university might globalize could reflect a democratization of knowledge production itself, apparent by undermining its own worldly privilege.

Most African Universities were established to produce personnel to man mainly government ministries, prior to independence or soon thereafter. Initially European models transplanted to Africa and  thus alien to the social structure, African Universities have nevertheless accomplished a lot in achieving their initial objectives and overcoming some of the problems associated with colonialisation. However, this article argues that, as the end of the twentieth century approaches, these Universities must undergo a process of adaptation from their European heritage and reform themselves.

Kraak examines the influence of a body of international literature on the development of post-apartheid policies in higher education and training and in science and technology. Known as the "Mode Two" knowledge debate, it refers to the emergence of a new mode of knowledge production. This new approach has its origins in the synergy and cross-fertilization taking place in the interstices between established disciplines, and in the interaction of higher education scientists with other knowledge practitioners from government and business. Kraak outlines the debates that these changes have triggered, chief among these being whether they privilege research at the expense of teaching, and whether they will lead to the greater commercialization of knowledge production in South African higher education institutions.

The relationship between government and the institutions of higher learning in any society reflects the variety of historical, political, and cultural factors that have formed the character of that society.  A careful study of government-university relations therefore requires some appreciation of a society's history.  Sawyerr analyzes this relationship within the Ghanaian context throughout its history.  Inheriting an English model of higher education, Ghana's university became a vital part of the national project of self-development and, in turn, constitute a major source of ideas on all matters of national concern.  Difficulties have arisen in the attempt to keep the universities autonomous from the government.

Although a new institution, the University of Namibia is facing the same problems of curriculum, funding, and access which hinder academic effectiveness elsewhere.  Based on their experience and previous research, the authors outline a process for facilitating the government and academic leadership so crucial to evolving a responsive university. They discern that success for higher education in the Namibian context will require merging the roles of the University and the Polytechnic and transcending imported models to develop an institution responsive to Namibian needs.

For all the diverse elements and values of the South African Higher Education system, its historic mission and the role that it plays in society were defined for it in the previous era. However, the author argues that this existential crisis stems only partially from its Apartheid past. Its intellectual and organizational shape stems also from its place on the edge of the global academic metropole from which it attempts to draw its academic legitimacy. That metropole itself is currently shaken by large transformatory processes heralded by the burgeoning role of knowledge and information in the production processes of modern societies. This new epoch is characterized by a tremendous distribution of knowledge generation and dissemination activities in society thus undermining the hegemony of the 'modern university' in these enterprises.

As societies internationalize, the demand for, and the value of, various goods and services increase. Individuals who possess new ideas, technologies and information that abets globalization become imbued with “transnational human capital,” making them more valuable to these societies. The authors look at this issue from five perspectives. First, they show that China's education and employment system is now highly internationalized. Secondly, since even Chinese scholars sent by the government rely heavily on foreign funds to complete their studies, China is benefiting from foreign capital invested in the cohort of returnees. Thirdly, they show that foreign PhDs are worth more than domestic PhDs in terms of perception, technology transfer, and in their ability to bring benefits to their universities. Finally, returnees in high tech zones, compared to people in the zones who had not been overseas, were more likely to be importing technology and capital, to feel that their skills were in great demand within society, and to be using that technology to target the domestic market.

Of all the countries of South East Asia, Thaliand maintained its independence from colonial rule by astutely playing off the different colonial powers.  Nevertheless, its rulers were strongly influenced by Western ideas which were modified to suit Thai culture.  In much the same way the Thai leaders used, adapted, and modified Western university models to develop their own system of higher education. Until the second World War, French and English patterns were closely adhered to. Following the war, North American influence became particularly strong.  During the 1970s and 1980s, the British Open University, a distance learning university, was used as a model for future developments.  All these were models, however; they were not transplants. As a result, Thailand has developed an unusual blend of traditional and modern approaches to its provision of higher education without seriously compromising its cultural values, and some of the country's solutions are particularly novel.  This chapter discusses what can be learned from the Thai example.

Gopinathan provides an analytical account of the transformation of Singapore tertiary education system in the post-colonial period. Using a socio-political perspective focusing upon the governing of elite's need to harness the university sector for its development ideology, the paper traces the manner in which the privately-funded, Chinese-medium Nanyang University and the state-supported, English-medium University of Singapore both underwent transformation in the crucial areas of academic freedom, university autonomy, and governance.  Language, cultural and educational differences are shown to narrow in line with socio-economic transformations leading to the eventual dominance of the English-medium institution. It is argued further that in the transformation the university lost essential western-model characteristics.

Rizvi discusses a range of issues concerning the idea of “brain drain” within the context of recent thinking on transnational mobility. Rizvi argues that the traditional analyses of brain drain are not sufficient, and that we can usefully approach the topic from a postcolonial perspective concerned with issues of identity, national affiliations, and deterritorialisation of cultures. Based on interviews conducted with international students from India and China in Australian and American universities, Rizvi analyzes the ways in which student subjectivities and career aspirations relate to the dilemmas of globalization: the opportunities provided by the new knowledge economy and global labor markets on the one hand, and the perceptions of national and community loyalties on the other.