What for decades could only be dreamed of is now almost within reach: the widespread provision of free online education, regardless of a geographic location, financial status, or ability to access conventional institutions of learning. But does open education really offer the openness, democracy and cost-effectiveness its supporters promise? Or will it lead to a two-tier system, where those who can't afford to attend a traditional university will have to make do with online, second-rate alternatives? Open Education engages critically with the creative disruption of the university through free online education. It puts into political context not just the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) but also TED Talks, Wikiversity along with self-organised 'pirate' libraries and 'free universities' associated with the anti-austerity protests and the global Occupy movement. Questioning many of the ideas open education projects take for granted, including Creative Commons, it proposes a radically different model for the university and education in the twenty-first century.

This indispensable book helps PhD candidates to understand the viva process and to prepare and present their work in the best possible manner. With concrete guidance, examples and activities throughout, it covers everything from the constitution of the PhD viva panel and how to prepare as the event draws closer to typical questions and how to answer them. Chapters are enriched with authentic case studies and insights from successful PhD graduates. This text is suitable for PhD and other doctoral degree students across all disciplines, and helpful to supervisors and examiners.

This book will help aspiring undergraduates through the competitive admissions process for some of the world's top universities. It will help prospective candidates answer a very specific question: what makes a successful personal statement? Using a collection of real-life personal statements from students recently accepted into Cambridge University across all subjects, the authors provide a behind-the-scenes look into what it takes to be admitted into a top academic institution. The result is a book that offers a rare insight into the often opaque and complex thought-process that goes into accepting or rejecting a candidate and provides a benchmark for all students looking to study at top universities around the world.

Campus leaders describe how community colleges, publicly funded universities, and private liberal arts colleges across America are integrating sustainability into curriculum, policies, and programs. In colleges and universities across the United States, students, faculty, and staff are forging new paths to sustainability. From private liberal arts colleges to major research institutions to community colleges, sustainability concerns are being integrated into curricula, policies, and programs. New divisions, degree programs, and courses of study cross traditional disciplinary boundaries; Sustainability Councils become part of campus governance; and new sustainability issues link to historic social and educational missions. In this book, leaders from twenty-four colleges and universities offer their stories of institutional and personal transformation. These stories document both the power of leadership-whether by college presidents, faculty, staff, or student activists-and the potential for institutions to redefine themselves. Chapters recount, among other things, how inclusive campus governance helped mobilize students at the University of South Carolina; how a course at the Menominee Nation's tribal college linked sustainability and traditional knowledge; how the president of Furman University convinced a conservative campus community to make sustainability a strategic priority; how students at San Diego State University built sustainability into future governance while financing a LEED platinum-certified student center; and how sustainability transformed pedagogy in a lecture class at Penn State. As this book makes clear, there are many paths to sustainability in higher education. These stories offer a snapshot of what has been accomplished and a roadmap to what is possible. Colleges and Universities Covered Arizona State University * Central College, Iowa * College of the Menominee Nation, Wisconsin * Curriculum for the Bio-region Project, Pacific Northwest * Drury University, Missouri * Emory University, Georgia * Florida A&M University * Furman University, South Carolina * Green Mountain College, Vermont * Kap'olani Community College, Honolulu, Hawaii * Pennsylvania State University * San Diego State University * Santa Clara University, California * Slippery Rock State University, Pennsylvania * Spelman College, Georgia * Unity College, Maine * University of Hawaii-Manoa * University of Michigan * University of South Carolina * University of South Florida * University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh * Warren Wilson College, North Carolina * Yale University

The evolution of MIT, as seen in a series of crucial decisions over the years. How did MIT become MIT? The Massachusetts Institute of Technology marks the 150th anniversary of its founding in 2011. Over the years, MIT has lived by its motto, "Mens et Manus" ("Mind and Hand"), dedicating itself to the pursuit of knowledge and its application to real-world problems. MIT has produced leading scholars in fields ranging from aeronautics to economics, invented entire academic disciplines, and transformed ideas into market-ready devices. This book examines a series of turning points, crucial decisions that helped define MIT. Many of these issues have relevance today: the moral implications of defense contracts, the optimal balance between government funding and private investment, and the right combination of basic science, engineering, and humanistic scholarship in the curriculum. Chapters describe the educational vison and fund-raising acumen of founder William Barton Rogers (MIT was among the earliest recipients of land grant funding); MIT's relationship with Harvard-its rival, doppelganger, and, for a brief moment, degree-conferring partner; the battle between pure science and industrial sponsorship in the early twentieth century; MIT's rapid expansion during World War II because of defense work and military training courses; the conflict between Cold War gadgetry and the humanities; protests over defense contracts at the height of the Vietnam War; the uproar in the local community over the perceived riskiness of recombinant DNA research; and the measures taken to reverse years of institutionalized discrimination against women scientists.

The International Student's Survival Guide is a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide to studying and living in the UK. It will be invaluable in preparing international students for the inevitable differences in culture, customs, and academic life, and helps to ensure they get the most out of their time at University. Gareth Davey provides students with all the information needed to make the right choice about where to study and provides valuable advice on how to settle into your new surroundings, including guidance on: Choosing and applying for a course Leaving home and arriving in the UK Managing finances and living costs Academic culture Teaching and assessment methods Health and welfare Life after graduation Throughout the guide there are checklists and self-evaluation forms to help the reader chart their progress. A glossary is included to aid understanding of the topics covered, and directories of additional sources of information make it easy to find out more where necessary. This guide will be a useful resource for students coming to the UK to embark on either undergraduate or graduate study in any subject. SAGE Study Skills are essential study guides for students of all levels. From how to write great essays and succeeding at university, to writing your undergraduate dissertation and doing postgraduate research, SAGE Study Skills help you get the best from your time at university. Visit the SAGE Study Skills hub for tips, resources and videos on study success!

From a small city college in the sixteenth century the University of Edinburgh grew to be one of the world's greatest centres of scholarship, research and learning. Its history is told here by three of its leading historians with wit, verve and style. Copiously illustrated in colour and black and white, this is a book for everyone concerned with the university or the city of Edinburgh to read and enjoy. The authors consider the impacts of Reformation, Union with England, Enlightenment, and scientific and industrial revolutions. They show the university rising to the challenge of competition from Europe, describe the great periods of expansion in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and chart the university's building from Old College to George Square. They explore its tense relationship with the city, explore the histories of student outrage and unrest, recall the days when blasphemy could be punished by death, and reveal that the university's department of anatomy once supported a thriving trade in body-snatching. Upheaval and crisis, triumph and achievement succeed each other by turns in a story that is entertaining, intriguing and surprising -- and always interesting.

`An astute compilation of the university experience, made easily accessible to the reader, and lightened by the ability of a good storyteller. Within the book are tools to maximise and manage one's learning opportunities both in terms of objective skills and subjective psychological experiences, e.g., stress and anxiety. This is a book that has the potential to be useful throughout one's studies and to transform the university experience' - Brendan Bunting, Reader in Psychology, University of Ulster

For those attending university for the first time, the demands made on them academically and socially can seem daunting. Studying at University aims to equip the student with strategies for making the most out of the experience from the moment they arrive until after they leave. Written with fresh insight for the contemporary student, the book addresses key issues such as:

- adjusting to life at university

- making presentations

- working in small groups

- library and computer resources

- making the most from lectures and seminars

- basic numeracy and statistics

Studying at University also presents the student with new ways of learning. The author suggests ways of developing memory techniques as an aid for not just exams, but so that the student can reap the best rewards from the subject matter in hand. Ways of coping with exam and test anxieties are addressed, and a final section looks at preparing for job interviews after university life.

Packed with illustrative material and practical exercises, Studying at University aims to enable the student to perform at their very best academically, and will be of value to all undergraduate students across the social sciences and humanities.

America's colleges and universities are the best in the world. They are also the most expensive. Tuition has risen faster than the rate of inflation for the past thirty years. There is no indication that this trend will abate.

Ronald G. Ehrenberg explores the causes of this tuition inflation, drawing on his many years as a teacher and researcher of the economics of higher education and as a senior administrator at Cornell University. Using incidents and examples from his own experience, he discusses a wide range of topics including endowment policies, admissions and financial aid policies, the funding of research, tenure and the end of mandatory retirement, information technology, libraries and distance learning, student housing, and intercollegiate athletics.

He shows that colleges and universities, having multiple, relatively independent constituencies, suffer from ineffective central control of their costs. And in a fascinating analysis of their response to the ratings published by magazines such as "U.S. News & World Report," he shows how they engage in a dysfunctional competition for students.

In the short run, colleges and universities have little need to worry about rising tuitions, since the number of qualified students applying for entrance is rising even faster. But in the long run, it is not at all clear that the increases can be sustained. Ehrenberg concludes by proposing a set of policies to slow the institutions' rising tuitions without damaging their quality.

John MacAlister's Other Vision traces the history of The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine from its formation to the present day. It includes biographies and images of the major figures involved in the institution along with fascinating background information for those involved in postgraduate education. Members of the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine will find this book interesting and historically enlightening, as will members of The Royal College of Physicians, The Royal College of Surgeons and worldwide organisations and individuals with an interest in the history and development of postgraduate medical education.

From the beginning of World War II until he left the White House in early 1961, Dwight David Eisenhower played a leadership role on the world stage. This was longer than any American since George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. His Columbia presidency was part of this period, yet the story has not been told. Scholars have repeated earlier critical contemporary assessments and largely dismissed or ignored that part of his career. Jacobs seeks to answer many of the open-ended questions about Eisenhower's tenure as successor to Nicholas Murray Butler, whom many consider the greatest university president of the century. Jacobs examines previously unused sources to analyze Eisenhower's leadership and accomplishments, his goals and intentions, and whether his presidency at Columbia, generally considered a failure, ever had a chance of succeeding.

This insightful, well-written volume covers the years that played such a vital role in Dwight D. Eisenhower's journey to the White House. Jacobs reviews Eisenhower's appointment as chief of staff after his return from Europe after V-E Day, and, concurrently, looks at Columbia's difficulties in its troubled search for a president. He examines the deliberations on both sides before Eisenhower's acceptance of Columbia's presidency, and the circumstances surrounding his arrival and installation. Jacobs covers Eisenhower's subsequent leave of absence and return to duty at the Pentagon as NATO commander and the impact of his extended absence from Columbia. He resigned on the eve of his inauguration as president of the United States. Jacobs recounts the hostility of campus liberal intellectuals who had increasingly resented Eisenhower's presidency and were offended by the New York Times's endorsement of Eisenhower over Adlai E. Stevenson for the 1952 presidential campaign. Jacobs views Eisenhower's years as university president as playing a significant role in preparing him for his White House years.

A thorough assessment of Eisenhower's career on Morningside Heights is long overdue. Jacobs' insights on Eisenhower's presidency at Columbia will be of interest to Eisenhower's biographers, college and university administrators, American studies students, and the general public, curious about Eisenhower's public service as a civilian, before he became U. S. president.

As we enter the 21st century, colleges and universities are in great flux. Fiscal shortfalls, a suspicious public, a more consumer-driven market, and a host of other concerns demand that postsecondary institutions restructure themselves. Building the Responsive Campus offers a critique of modern academia, as well as a proposal for making campuses more effective -- that is, better at meeting clients and customers' needs. Author William G. Tierney addresses the problems that many academic institutions have today in clinging to the practices and organization of the past. He argues that institutions of higher learning are in demand of dramatic organizational changes. The chapters look at key critical issues -- faculty roles and rewards, presidential leadership, strategic planning, assessment, and evaluation-utilizing the latest ideas to bring about structural reform and high performance. The timely volume takes a data-driven approach, using research derived from ethnographies, case studies, and interviews carried out over the past 15 years. By outlining many of the organizational problems that colleges and universities face today, Tierney reveals workable solutions.

"The Harvard Century" tells the story of how Harvard, America's oldest and foremost institution of higher learning, has become synonymous with the nation, their goals and standards reflecting each other, each setting the other's agenda. It is also a colorful and intimate narrative of the individual achievements of its leaders and of the intense power struggles that have shaped Harvard as it pioneered in setting the priorities that have served as exemplars for the nation's educational establishment.

In 1859 John Langdon Sibley projected and began a series of biographical sketches of all Harvard graduates; at his death in 1885 he had published three volumes, covering the Classes from 1642 through 1689. In 1930 the work was resumed by Clifford Shipton, who carried the series through Volume XII and the Class of 1750. This book offers a representative selection from the nine volumes of Shipton's biographies. In these sketches there appear royal governors, counterfeiters, college presidents, bootleggers, Indian fighters, Revolutionary leaders, Loyalists, mariners, lawyers, drunkards, and clergymen of four persuasions. Together they form a cross section of Colonial life in which the Harvard tie is often only incidental.

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 than ever to nearly 2.5 million students. New technology offers new ways of learning and teaching. Globalisation 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. Does "marketisation" 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 cliches behind which it hides; an incitement to think again, think more clearly, and then to press for something better".

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.

This book explores the experience of supervision and the PhD, drawing on a range of key viewpoints to further understanding of this complex educational experience. Providing a complex and challenging education in research, the PhD is unlike other degrees and at its heart is the key educational role of supervisor. "Understanding Supervision and the PhD" explores doctoral research as a real life experience, as understood from the perspective of key participants, including those who have successfully completed their PhD, those who are currently studying towards their PhD, those who are new to supervision, and experienced supervisors. "Understanding Supervision and the PhD" is written in the belief that supervisors' professional development is enriched by recognising the variety of perspectives, experiences and forms of PhD that shape the doctoral experience. This realistic approach places the complexity of the supervisor role at the centre of analysis, recognising the risks that accompany the achievements of the task. Topical and relevant implications are drawn and questions are raised for supervision throughout. This valuable approach enables supervisors to apply these accounts to their own disciplinary and academic settings; in particular, the book recognises that there are no simple answers to supervisory challenges.

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The cloak-and-dagger secrecy of Yale University's secret society known as Skull and Bones has prompted people worldwide to attribute to it some of the most staggering conspiracies in modern history. From their nearly windowless crypt in the middle of the Yale campus, the Bonesmen, it is said, plot to dominate the world. In this widely acclaimed book, Alexandra Robbins slips through the veil of myth to investigate the truth about Skull and Bones' influence and operations.

Roy Douglas ('Pansy') Wright was one of the great Australians of the twentieth century. Born on a hill-country farm in northern Tasmania in 1907, he became an extraordinarily successful medical scientist and a builder of institutions such as the Australian National University, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Clinic and the Howard Florey Institute. He was loved for his brilliant, often ribald, wit, his fierce loyalties and his sympathy for the underdog. He died in 1990, shortly after completing a decade as Chancellor of the University of Melbourne. Wright was a legendary teacher and much-loved colleague and mentor. However, his ebullient style disguised the private difficulties of a person who was often unhappy and awkward with intimacy. He was also a controversial man. His rivals interpreted his relentless energy in creating medical institutions as megalomania. Others found his blunt personal style abrasive and offensive. In particular, his championing of Professor Sydney Sparkes Orra "dismissed by the University of Tasmania in 1956 for allegedly having seduced one of his studentsa "embroiled him in a decade of public controversy. In this delightfully lucid biography, Peter McPhee reveals the many contradictions in this complex and brilliant man.

The 21st century has started out with universities adhering to a school of thought that has evolved to the point of believing in the metamorphosis of people and society through the creation of powerful inventions. And society seems to expect that too. Universities around the world are experiencing an increasing pressure to produce revolutionary ideas that can be translated into publications, patents, business, and the like. As a way of welcoming the third mission for universities, elite winners of this tough game are gathering prestige, visibility, and all kind of human and financial assets. Training and research (the first and second missions) are no longer enough; universities are in a race for resources expressed in rankings that tend to model the whole higher education system. But, what about the small and middle size universities? They are watching the game and want to be part of it. This book is concerned with that group, especially private higher education that is looking for ways to become visible and attract more resources. Leadership at these institutions is becoming more entrepreneurial every day, and following in the steps of highly research productive schools. Changes like these do not come without resistance from, among others, faculty members who see these shifts as a threat to their traditional teaching mission. In short, this wave of producing inventions has put an incredible amount of stress on human resources and funding at smaller institutions. The book illustrates the perceptions that professors have about the production of knowledge and their organizational environment. This study seeks, through a mixed-method, to unveil organizational and personal characteristics of faculty members most related to research productivity at 12 small to medium sized not-for-profit, private, doctorate-granting universities in the United States of America. As an additional contribution, the author taps into alternative models of higher education, the implications for which should be considered in broader society. This is a scholarly work that is oriented to both policy makers and scholars of private universities that are evolving from a teaching oriented culture to a more research intense one.

This book is a twist on the current discourse around 'inclusivity' and 'widening participation'. Higher education is welcoming students from diverse educational, social, and economic backgrounds, and yet it predominantly employs middle-class academics. Conceptually, there appears, on at least these grounds alone, to be a cultural and class mismatch. This work discusses empirical interviews with tenured academics from a working-class heritage employed in one UK university. Interviewees talk candidly about their childhood backgrounds, their school experiences, and what happened to them after leaving compulsory education. They also reveal their experiences of university, both as students and academics from their early careers to the present day. This book will be of interest to an international audience that includes new and aspiring academics who come from a working-class background themselves. The multifaceted findings will also be relevant to established academics and students of sociology, education studies and social class.

This book addresses the pivotal role American institutions of higher education must play if the United States is to succeed in a global society and economy. Containing papers presented at a symposium held in late 1992 at MIT, this important book identifies three critical resources: human capital, financial capital, and intellectual capital. All 11 chapters focus in some way on the use of these resources toward effective functionality of U.S. colleges and universities in a global environment. The book also personalizes this discussion with instructive examples of comprehensive international strategy drawn from internationalizing the curriculum experiences at Carleton College, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania. This enlightening and thought-provoking volume is for college and university presidents, administrators, and trustees, and for policymakers in federal government agencies.