Quality in Undergraduate Education ─ How Powerful Knowledge Disrupts Inequality

Globally, the appetite for higher education is great, but what do students and societies gain? Quality in Undergraduate Education foregrounds the importance of knowledge acquisition at university. Many argue that university education is no longer a public good due to the costs incurred by students who are then motivated by the promise of lucrative employment rather than by studying a discipline for its own sake. McLean, Abbas and Ashwin, however, reveal a more complex picture and offer a way of thinking about good quality university education for all. Drawing on a study which focused on four sociology-related social science UK university departments of different reputation, the book shows that students value sociological knowledge because it gives them a framework to think about and act on understanding how individuals and society interact. Further, the authors discuss how what was learned from the study about how policy, curriculum and pedagogy might preserve and strengthen the personal and social gains of social science undergraduate education.

Monica McLean is Professor of Higher Education in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK. She has written Pedagogy and the University and Professional Education, Capabilities and the Public Good.

Andrea Abbas is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Education at the Department of Education, University of Bath, UK.

Paul Ashwin is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, UK. He is the lead author of Reflective Teaching in Higher Education.