University Governance and Reform—Policy, Fads, and Experience in International Perspective

When times are tough and student demand is going through the roof, government and private providers seem to agree: this is the moment for increased accountability, "new public management," more commercially viable research, less faculty power, mass education, and greater use of internet-based education. The great questions of the mid-19th century have come back to haunt the university. Who controls the university? How shall they do it? Who will pay? Should academic faculty or "clients and customers" decide what tune the university will play? The contributors to this book ask whether faculty risk losing their remaining authority in matters of finance, curriculum, and administration in universities. They inquire as to the future of academic legislatures—senates, boards, and committees. They assess accessibility and quality and record the rise and fall (and rise again) of neo-liberal policies and their effects on universities. University Governance and Reform includes introductions to conceptual and theoretical problems in higher education, along with studies of important regional institutions, and covers higher education governance in Canada, the United States, Asia, Australia, Mexico, Indonesia, and Ecuador.