Speaking of Universities
A devastating analysis of what is happening to our academia

In recent decades there has been an immense global surge in the numbers both of universities and of students. In the UK alone there are now over 140 institutions teaching more subjects to nearly 2.5 million students. New technology offers new ways of learning and teaching. Globalization forces institutions to consider a new economic horizon. At the same time governments have systematically imposed new procedures regulating funding, governance, and assessment. Universities are being forced to behave more like business enterprises in a commercial marketplace than centres of learning.

In Speaking of Universities, historian and critic Stefan Collini analyses these changes and challenges the assumptions of policy-makers and commentators. He asks: does “marketization” threaten to destroy what we most value about education; does this new era of “accountability” distort what it purports to measure; and who does the modern university belong to? Responding to recent policies and their underlying ideology, the book is a call to “focus on what is actually happening and the clichés behind which it hides; an incitement to think again, think more clearly, and then to press for something better.”
"1125140099"
Speaking of Universities
A devastating analysis of what is happening to our academia

In recent decades there has been an immense global surge in the numbers both of universities and of students. In the UK alone there are now over 140 institutions teaching more subjects to nearly 2.5 million students. New technology offers new ways of learning and teaching. Globalization forces institutions to consider a new economic horizon. At the same time governments have systematically imposed new procedures regulating funding, governance, and assessment. Universities are being forced to behave more like business enterprises in a commercial marketplace than centres of learning.

In Speaking of Universities, historian and critic Stefan Collini analyses these changes and challenges the assumptions of policy-makers and commentators. He asks: does “marketization” threaten to destroy what we most value about education; does this new era of “accountability” distort what it purports to measure; and who does the modern university belong to? Responding to recent policies and their underlying ideology, the book is a call to “focus on what is actually happening and the clichés behind which it hides; an incitement to think again, think more clearly, and then to press for something better.”
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Speaking of Universities

Speaking of Universities

by Stefan Collini
Speaking of Universities

Speaking of Universities

by Stefan Collini

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Overview

A devastating analysis of what is happening to our academia

In recent decades there has been an immense global surge in the numbers both of universities and of students. In the UK alone there are now over 140 institutions teaching more subjects to nearly 2.5 million students. New technology offers new ways of learning and teaching. Globalization forces institutions to consider a new economic horizon. At the same time governments have systematically imposed new procedures regulating funding, governance, and assessment. Universities are being forced to behave more like business enterprises in a commercial marketplace than centres of learning.

In Speaking of Universities, historian and critic Stefan Collini analyses these changes and challenges the assumptions of policy-makers and commentators. He asks: does “marketization” threaten to destroy what we most value about education; does this new era of “accountability” distort what it purports to measure; and who does the modern university belong to? Responding to recent policies and their underlying ideology, the book is a call to “focus on what is actually happening and the clichés behind which it hides; an incitement to think again, think more clearly, and then to press for something better.”

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781786631404
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication date: 03/28/2017
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 304
File size: 404 KB

About the Author

Stefan Collini is Professor Emeritus of Intellectual History and English Literature at Cambridge University and Fellow of the British Academy. He is a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Guardian, and the Nation, and he has been described by a reviewer as “one of Britain’s finest essayists and writers.” Other works include Common Writing: Essays on Literary Culture and Public Debate, What Are Universities For?, Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain, and English Pasts: Essays in History and Culture.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Hand-wringing for Beginners 1

Part I Analyses

1 What's Happening to Universities? Historical and Comparative Perspectives 15

2 Measuring Up: Universities and 'Accountability' 36

3 Reading the Ruins: Criticism and 'the Idea of the University' 61

Part II Critiques

4 From Robbins to McKinsey: The Changing Policy Framework 91

5 Sold Out: Privatizing Higher Education 119

6 Higher Purchase: The Student as Consumer 155

Part III Occasions

7 The 'English Problem' and the Scottish Solution 179

8 Public Higher Education: An Undefensive Defence 193

9 Speaking Out: Strategies and their Publics 206

10 The Future of the Humanities 222

11 Who Does the University Belong To? 231

Acknowledgements 245

Appendix: Short Work 249

Notes 288

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