What is a university? What is the University? How have universities evolved over the centuries? How might they change over the coming decades as the physical and organisational entity most identified with 'higher education' being delivered to over 250 million students? What will be the impact of digital- and distance-learning, of commercial for-profit new entrants to the higher education market, of government austerity, of globalization, of student consumerism? Exploring the origins and the concept, the idea and the ideal, of the university, this Very Short Introduction discusses one of the world's oldest, most resilient, and most adaptable institutions. David Palfreyman and Paul Temple consider the links between universities and the economy, and the role of universities within society. Highlighting some of the key questions surrounding the position of universities, they ask how the university can be politically accountable for its taxpayer funding, if it needs to be autonomous to function effectively as a public good. Are professors professional enough in their teaching practices at a time that increasing tuition fees transform students more and more into consumers? And just what does 'academic freedom' for university faculties really entail? ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The University of Cambridge has always inspired artists and writers, and these sumptuous volumes from 1840 portray some of its most important historic buildings, institutions and people. Each volume includes a collection of essays, anecdotes, poems and reminiscences on the colleges, museums, gardens, streets and character of the town, as well as historical essays on the Boat Race and university teaching. The many illustrations of major sights and important views, such as the Backs, the river Cam and Grantchester meadows, include works by or after several well-known artists, engraver Charles George Lewis and landscape painter John Murray Ince among them. With contributors drawn from the various colleges, the volumes include much interesting material on the history and customs of the University up to 1840. This miscellany is an ideal gift or collector's item for all those interested in the University of Cambridge.

The University of Cambridge has always inspired artists and writers, and these sumptuous volumes from 1840 portray some of its most important historic buildings, institutions and people. Each volume includes a collection of essays, anecdotes, poems and reminiscences on the colleges, museums, gardens, streets and character of the town, as well as historical essays on the Boat Race and university teaching. The many illustrations of major sights and important views, such as the Backs, the river Cam and Grantchester meadows, include works by or after several well-known artists, engraver Charles George Lewis and landscape painter John Murray Ince among them. With contributors drawn from the various colleges, the volumes include much interesting material on the history and customs of the University up to 1840. This miscellany is an ideal gift or collector's item for all those interested in the University of Cambridge.

"Adams has skillfully analyzed hundreds of primary source docu-ments and integrated contemporary political, social and cultural elements in bringing to light the values, customs, and controver-sies which have shaped the Corps' 125-year history."--"Texas"" Aggie"

Charles Henry Cooper charted over half a millennium of life at Cambridge in the five volumes of Annals of Cambridge. Cooper practised as a solicitor in Cambridge, and was also town clerk from 1849 until his death in 1866. He was a keen historian and devoted a great deal of time to archival research, particularly into local history. Drawing on extensive public and private records, including petitions, town treasurers' accounts, restoration records, death certificates, legal articles and letters to ruling royalty, Cooper compiled a comprehensive chronological history of Cambridge, documenting the 'city of scholars' through its tumultuous political and religious growing pains. It was published in parts, in the face of considerable opposition from the university authorities, but was eventually acclaimed as an authoritative account. This first volume, published in 1842, spans the centuries from the town's beginnings to the surveys of the colleges in 1546.

Charles Henry Cooper charted over half a millennium of life at Cambridge in the five volumes of Annals of Cambridge. Cooper practised as a solicitor in Cambridge, and was also town clerk from 1849 until his death in 1866. He was a keen historian and devoted a great deal of time to archival research, particularly into local history. Drawing on extensive public and private records, including petitions, town treasurers' accounts, restoration records, death certificates, legal articles and letters to ruling royalty, Cooper compiled a comprehensive chronological history of Cambridge, documenting the 'city of scholars' through its tumultuous political and religious growing pains. It was published in parts, in the face of considerable opposition from the university authorities, but was eventually acclaimed as an authoritative account. This second volume, published in 1843, covers the Elizabethan period, from 1546 1601, and includes the founding of the University Press.

Charles Henry Cooper charted over half a millennium of life at Cambridge in the Annals of Cambridge. Cooper practised as a solicitor in Cambridge, and was also town clerk from 1849 until his death in 1866. He was a keen historian and devoted a great deal of time to archival research, particularly into local history. Drawing on extensive public and private records, including petitions, town treasurers' accounts, restoration records, death certificates, legal articles and letters to ruling royalty, Cooper compiled a comprehensive chronological history of Cambridge, documenting the 'city of scholars' through its tumultuous political and religious growing pains. It was published in the face of considerable opposition from the university authorities, but was eventually acclaimed as an authoritative account. Volume 3, published in 1845, begins with the accession of James I, covers the Civil War and the Commonwealth, and ends in 1688 on the eve of the Glorious Revolution.

Charles Henry Cooper charted over half a millennium of life at Cambridge in the five volumes of the Annals of Cambridge. Cooper practised as a solicitor in Cambridge, and was also town clerk from 1849 until his death in 1866. He was a keen historian and devoted a great deal of time to archival research, particularly into local history. Drawing on extensive public and private records, including petitions, town treasurers' accounts, restoration records, death certificates, legal articles and letters to ruling royalty, Cooper compiled a comprehensive chronological history of Cambridge, documenting the 'city of scholars' through its tumultuous political and religious growing pains. It was published in the face of considerable opposition from the university authorities, but was eventually acclaimed as an authoritative account. Volume 5 was published posthumously in 1908 and contains the annals for 1850 1856, together with additions, corrections and an index for the first four volumes.

In the mid-nineteenth century, a royal commission was appointed to investigate 'the state, discipline, studies, and revenues' of Cambridge University, and eventually recommended radical reforms. As part of its brief, it gathered records that had been preserved for centuries as the university evolved. Published in three volumes in 1852 under the title Documents Relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge, the compilation, much of it in its original Latin, charts the university's emergence as one of the world's leading academic institutions and the challenges it faced along the way. This material remains a valuable resource for historians of British education and society. Volume 1 covers the period to the mid-sixteenth century and contains, among other historical gems, an abstract of records spanning nine monarchies, and an earlier compilation ordered by Henry VIII in the 37th year of his reign.

First published in 1913, John Venn's collection of writings describes college life in the early days of the University of Cambridge. Venn, a leading British logician and moral scientist, was president of Gonville and Caius College, and had been a student at Cambridge in the 1850s. This volume of 'reminiscences of a reading man' contains articles he contributed to the college magazine, The Caian and speeches and addresses given at College Chapel and Hall. These are interspersed with letters written by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Cambridge scholars, and embedded in a commentary that provides additional insights into student life and university politics. He also includes, as an appendix, 'College Life and Ways Sixty Years Ago', recounting his own student experiences. Ranging from the Elizabethan to the Victorian era, Early Collegiate Life offers an honest and delightful glimpse into the daily lives of Cambridge scholars of the past.

'Grace books' were the volumes in which scribes recorded decisions of the administration of the University of Cambridge during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many of the 'graces' concern the conferral of degrees on individuals, but others refer to more general University business including appointment of teachers and preachers, leaves of absence, inventories and financial records, and the resolution of disputes. Grace Book B, Part 1 covers the years from 1488 to 1511, and this transcription was first published in 1903 with an introduction by Mary Bateson of Newnham College which explains the terminology and the administrative systems underlying it, and the changes they underwent during this period. The Latin documents transcribed in this publication constitute a valuable source for those researching British history and institutions in the early Tudor period, and this reissue will make them readily available to scholars today.

'Grace books' were the volumes in which scribes recorded decisions of the administration of the University of Cambridge during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Many of the 'graces' concern the conferral of degrees on individuals, but others refer to more general University business including appointment of teachers and preachers, leaves of absence, inventories and financial records, and the resolution of disputes. Grace Book B, Part 2 covers the years from 1511 to 1544. This transcription was first published in 1905 with an introduction by Mary Bateson of Newnham College which explains the terminology and the administrative systems underlying it, and the changes they underwent during this period. The Latin documents transcribed in this publication constitute a valuable source for those researching British history and institutions in the early Tudor period, and this reissue will make them readily available to scholars today.

'Grace books' were the volumes in which scribes recorded decisions of the administration of the University of Cambridge during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Grace Book, first published in 1908, is the third of the Grace Books, Books A and B having been published in three volumes during the preceding decade. While Grace Books A and B included details of financial transactions, this volume focuses on the conferral of degrees by examination and incorporation, and on various dispensations. This compilation, with a substantial introduction and index by William George Searle and J. W. Clark, constitutes a valuable source for those researching British history and institutions in the early Tudor period, and this reissue will make them readily available to scholars today.

C. F. Abdy Williams (1855 1923), a noted music scholar, traced the history of the discipline at Oxford and Cambridge from the fifteenth century to the late Victorian period in this 1894 book. He discusses the earliest records of degrees in the subject, the establishment of professorships, the requirements for degrees and the ceremonies associated with their conferral. He provides biographical information for graduates from as early as 1463, noting that English music of this early period was in a very advanced stage compared to that of the rest of Europe. He also includes, in an appendix, the names of those persons who are mentioned as graduates but whose names do not appear in the university records. His book reveals the importance attached to the cultivation of music at the ancient British universities and the prestige attached to their scholars over several centuries.

This affectionate but far from sentimental history was published in 1961 to mark the 450th anniversary of the foundation of St John's College, Cambridge. Edward Miller (1915-2000) was a medieval historian who spent most of his career teaching in Cambridge. An undergraduate and research fellow at St John's, he later went on to become Master of Fitzwilliam. His Portrait blends the history of St John's with wider developments in education, as well as social, political and economic history. As such it is a fine example of an institutional history written from within, with an unbiased assessment of the many changes the College had seen. The chapter on the period from 1918 to the early sixties, based on Miller's own reminiscences and those of his colleagues, is an important record of life in the college in an age of modernisation and change.

This book presents detailed criticisms of existing systems for organising research, and outlines a new approach based on different principles. Part 1 criticizes the research assessment exercise (RAE) which has been used in the UK from 1986 to 2008. It is argued that the RAE is both very costly, and likely to reduce the quality of research produced. The UK government has decided that, from 2009, the RAE should be replaced by a system based on metrics. In Part 2 this system is criticized and it is argued that it is certainly no better, and probably worse, than the RAE. In Part 3 of the book, the proposed alternative system is outlined, and it is argued that it would produce better quality research at a much lower cost than either the RAE or the system based on metrics. The arguments are illustrated by a variety of examples of excellent research, taken from different fields. These include Einstein's discovery of Special Relativity, Fleming's discovery of penicillin, Frege's introduction of modern mathematical logic, and Wittgenstein's work on his masterpiece: Philosophical Investigations. The Author: Donald Gillies is Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London.

This book offers a unique view on the quality audit programme that the European University Association has been offering to its members for more than a decade. The authors are all closely involved in the operation of the programme, thus being able to present a critical view of the advantages of the methodology of supportive peer review addressing both theoretical concepts and study cases in a language that is simultaneously appropriate for researchers and for practitioners.

Most people who work and study in universities will be aware that they are changing. Yet few have so far grasped the extent of this change or have attempted to put it in a coherent intellectual framework. This volume provides new ways to understand how the university workforce in developed nations is being encouraged to change itself, and how the social role of these institutions has shifted from places of higher learning toward being agents for social change and the promotion of human welfare. Moreover the demands that are being placed on institutions and the kinds of graduates they are required to produce has changed too, with the emphasis on a new brand of vocationalism and a reinvigorated focus on skills and employability. This volume provides a theoretically informed, philosophically sophisticated account of what universities in developed nations are being encouraged to do, and the impact this has on their staff, students and the societies of which they are a part.

Has higher education become too successful? Are the expectations for higher education too grandiose? Lazerson discusses both the problems and the accomplishment of American universities with equal care. The book delivers a penetrating, nuanced account of American universities in the twenty-first century. Tackles topics that range from the rise of the managerial class to the failed attempts to reform practice in the classroom.

An undergraduate dissertation is your opportunity to engage with geographical research, first-hand. But completing a student project can be a stressful and complex process. Your Human Geography Dissertation breaks the task down into three helpful stages: Designing: Deciding on your approach, your topic and your research question, and ensuring your project is feasible Doing: Situating your research and selecting the best methods for your dissertation project Delivering: Dealing with data and writing up your findings With information and task boxes, soundbites offering student insight and guidance, and links to online materials, this book offers a complete and accessible overview of the key skills needed to prepare, research, and write a successful human geography dissertation.

The university is often regarded as a bastion of liberal democracy where equity and diversity are vigorously promoted. In reality, the university still excludes many people and is a site of racialization that is subtle, complex, and sophisticated. This book, the first comprehensive, data-based study of racialized and Indigenous faculty members' experiences in Canadian universities, challenges the myth of equity in higher education. Drawing on a rich body of survey data, interviews, and analysis of universities' stated policies, leading scholars scrutinize what universities have done and question the effectiveness of their employment equity programs. They also make important recommendations as to how universities can address racialization and fulfill the promise of equity in the academy.

From the author of ""The University of Arkansas Razorback Band: A History, 1874-2004"" comes this new book about the birth, growth, and development of other successful bands at Arkansas colleges that continue to have marching and concert band programs on their campuses. T.T. Tyler Thompson takes the reader on a journey from the late nineteenth century through the early twenty-first century as bands became an integral part of the state's budding campuses of higher education and provided a performance outlet for thousands of college students, setting the musical stage for their respective campuses' educational experience.

This simple and clear guide to lecturing is an example-based account of effective strategies for exciting and successful lectures for academic and business lecturers. From the lecturing mindset, combating fear and nervousness, to lecturing tricks and tactics, this book discusses a wide array of practical ideas that may surprise and help even the most experienced public speakers and lecturers. The author provides unique insights into lecturing for twenty-first century audiences, based on his academic and non-academic lecturing experiences at the University of Toronto and Stanford University; experiences which have resulted in numerous institutional, provincial, and international teaching and lecturing awards. Further resources for this title, including lecture slides and videos of presentations and lectures, are available online from www.cambridge.org/9780521876100.

Rather like Martin Huntingdon in "The Closing of the American Mind", the author is concerned with the deterioration in the quality of university education. He argues that the true purpose of a university has been lost sight of and needs to be re-established. The word 'university' is in its derivation related to the word 'universe' and suggests wholeness. A university, therefore should be a place where human endeavours to understand the universe are brought together. Twentieth-century specialisation, whilst greatly increasing our knowledge, has unfortunately fragmented it. The author considers it is also necessary to review not only the concept of 'university' but also 'education', and to look beyond the narrow idea of the mere acquisition of knowledge to the more universal ideal of 'wisdom'. This review, he suggests, is best conducted in terms not just of the history of ideas but of a fresh examination of the ideas themselves. To provoke thinking in this direction he asks some very basic questions about a number of ideas related, first to universities themselves, such as education, culture, religion, philosophy, science, literature, language, art, law and music; and second to the world of philosophy: life, being, light, nature, plants, animals, man, woman, evil, time, food, sex and death. Readers are encouraged to rethink everything they have taken for granted about university education. The book is at once traditional, in looking to the sources of the ideal of education, and revolutionary, in undermining modern preconceptions. It is written for the general reader with an interest in university education but dissatisfied with what is on offer at most universities today. The style is, therefore, free from learned jargon.