Universities and Colleges: A Very Short Introduction

Description

This book looks at the role of the university in a social and economic context, as a repository of knowledge and a site for instruction. It considers how universities are founded,, funded, governed, lead, and managed, how the advent of increased fees has affected their relationship with students, and what is in the future for higher education.

• Offers a wide ranging introduction to the many types of university; from very small operations through the traditional campus to the information technology-enabled 'mega-universities'
• Discusses the origins and concept of universities, and the different forms modern universities take across the world, including the UK and America
• Considers the role of universities in society, and the part they play in our culture and economics
• Comments on the future of higher education institutions in a digital age of distance learning
• Discusses the relationship between fee paying students and teaching professors, and the increasing expectations of students as customers
• Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over eight million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

David Palfreyman, Bursar and Fellow, New College, Oxford, and Paul Temple, Reader Emeritus in Higher Education, UCL Institute of Education

David Palfreyman is the Bursar and a Fellow of New College, University of Oxford. He is also the Director of the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies. David serves as the Honorary Treasurer of and as a Trustee of the Society for Research in Higher Education. He is a co-editor of the Routledge 25-volume series International Studies in Higher Education; and a Member of the Editorial Board of The World of Learning (Routledge). His publications include: Reshaping the University: The Rise of the Regulated Market in Higher Education (with T. Tapper, OUP, 2014); and The Law of Higher Education (with D. Farrington, OUP, 2012).

Paul Temple is Reader Emeritus in Higher Education at the UCL Institute of Education, London, where he was until recently Co-Director of its Centre for Higher Education. His research centres around issues of efficiency and effectiveness in higher education institutions, which has led him to study the physical form of universities and colleges, and how these may affect the academic work of the institutions. Before entering academic life, he worked in university and college planning and finance.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Illustrations
1:The enduring idea and changing ideal of the university
2:What do universities do?
3:Global patterns of higher education
4:How universities work
5:Students: getting in, getting on, getting out
6:Working in the universities: more than just a job?
7:Futures for the university
References
Further Reading
Index

Reviews

"The book provides a rich and nuanced picture of a very varied scene." - Matthew Reisz, Times Higher Education