Despite the broad engagement of higher education institutions in most social sectors, limited thinking and hyper-individualistic approaches have dominated discussions of their value to society. Advocating a more rigorous and comprehensive approach, this insightful book discusses the broad range of contributions made by higher education and the many issues entailed in theorising, observing, measuring and evaluating those contributions. Prepared by a group of leading international scholars, the chapters investigate the multiple interconnections between higher education and society and the vast range of social, economic, political and cultural functions carried out by universities, colleges and institutes and their personnel. The benefits of higher education include employable graduates, new knowledge via research and scholarship, climate science and global connections, and the structuring of economic and social opportunities for whole populations, as well as work and advice for government at all levels. Higher education not only lifts earnings and augments careers, it also immerses students in knowledge, helps to shape them as people, and fosters productivity, democracy, tolerance and international understanding. The book highlights the value added by higher education for persons, organisations, communities, cities, nations, and the world. It also focuses on inequalities in the distribution of that value, and finds that the tools for assessing higher education are neither adequate nor complete as yet. International and interdisciplinary in scope, this book will prove an invaluable resource to students and scholars of higher education, educational policy and social policy. It will also prove a useful resource to both university executives and tertiary education policymakers who want to make higher education more effectively accountable to the public.

The Handbook on the Politics of Higher Education reveals valuable new perspectives for understanding higher education. Higher education plays an ever-greater role in contemporary life, creating innovation, skills, prosperity, and wellbeing, and is therefore of increasing importance to understand. Crafted as a sophisticated entry point, this Handbook takes a wide look at the topic, the state of contemporary research, and future directions. An array of expert international contributors examine important and contentious issues such as who should pay, how to keep higher education accountable, the assurance of quality, boosting productivity and affordability, and the role of states and markets. Experts explain how universities relate to states and societies, the political economy of higher education, planning and resource allocation, regulation and quality, and the politics of stakeholder interests. Unpacking key issues for both researchers new to the sector and experts alike, this topical Handbook will prove essential and thought-provoking reading for government policymakers, social science researchers, higher education executives, as well as instructors of graduate courses. Contributors include: B. Cantwell, H. Coates, A. Boggs, J. Brennan, A. Calderon, D.G. Carew, B. Chapman, G. Croucher, G. Davis, R. Deem, T. Depaola, D. Dohmen, R. Fearnside, C.A. Goldman, A. Grimm, E. Halford, T. Hicks, E. Jerez, B. Jongbloed, A. Kezar, R. King, M. Klemencic, D. Kristoffersen, M. Krongkaew, S. Lee, B. Lepori, M. Lodge, R. Middlehurst, K. Moore, A. Olsson, B.Y. Park, A. Pettigrew, S. Popenici, B. Pusser, S. Robertson, P. Rohan, C. Sa, E. Sabzalieva, D. Van Damme, M. Van Der Wende, M. Vukasovic, R. Wagenaar, S.U. Weerakkody, M. Wells, R. Yang, C. Ziguras

American higher education is often understood as a vehicle for social advancement. However, the institutions at which students enroll differ widely from one another. Some enjoy tremendous endowment savings and/or collect resources via research, which then offsets the funds that students contribute. Other institutions rely heavily on student tuition payments. These schools may struggle to remain solvent, and their students often bear the lion's share of educational costs. Unequal Higher Education identifies and explains the sources of stratification that differentiate colleges and universities in the United States. Barrett J. Taylor and Brendan Cantwell use quantitative analysis to map the contours of this system. They then explain the mechanisms that sustain it and illustrate the ways in which rising institutional inequality has limited individual opportunity, especially for students of color and low-income individuals.

American higher education is often understood as a vehicle for social advancement. However, the institutions at which students enroll differ widely from one another. Some enjoy tremendous endowment savings and/or collect resources via research, which then offsets the funds that students contribute. Other institutions rely heavily on student tuition payments. These schools may struggle to remain solvent, and their students often bear the lion's share of educational costs. Unequal Higher Education identifies and explains the sources of stratification that differentiate colleges and universities in the United States. Barrett J. Taylor and Brendan Cantwell use quantitative analysis to map the contours of this system. They then explain the mechanisms that sustain it and illustrate the ways in which rising institutional inequality has limited individual opportunity, especially for students of color and low-income individuals.

Today, nearly every aspect of higher education--including student recruitment, classroom instruction, faculty research, administrative governance, and the control of intellectual property--is embedded in a political economy with links to the market and the state. Academic capitalism offers a powerful framework for understanding this relationship. Essentially, it allows us to understand higher education's shift from creating scholarship and learning as a public good to generating knowledge as a commodity to be monetized in market activities.

In " Academic Capitalism in the Age of Globalization," Brendan Cantwell and Ilkka Kauppinen assemble an international team of leading scholars to explore the profound ways in which globalization and the knowledge economy have transformed higher education around the world. The book offers an in-depth assessment of the theoretical foundations of academic capitalism, as well as new empirical insights into how the process of academic capitalism has played out. Chapters address academic capitalism from historical, transnational, national, and local perspectives. Each contributor offers fascinating insights into both new conceptual interpretations of and practical institutional and national responses to academic capitalism.

Incorporating years of research by influential theorists and building on the work of Sheila Slaughter, Larry Leslie, and Gary Rhoades, "Academic Capitalism in the Age of Globalization" provides a provocative update for understanding academic capitalism. The book will appeal to anyone trying to make sense of contemporary higher education.

Higher Education has become a central institution of society, building individual knowledge, skills, agency, and relational social networks at unprecedented depth and scale. Within a generation there has been an extraordinary global expansion of Higher Education, in every region in all but the poorest countries, outstripping economic growth and deriving primarily from familial aspirations for betterment. By focusing on the systems and countries that have already achieved near universal participation, High Participation Systems of Higher Education explores this remarkable transformation. The world enrolment ratio, now rising by 10 per cent every decade, is approaching 40 per cent, mostly in degree-granting institutions, including three quarters of young people in North America and Europe. Higher Education systems in the one in three countries that enrol more than 50 per cent are here classified as 'high participation systems'. Part I of the book measures, maps, and explains the growth of participation, and the implications for society and Higher Education itself. Drawing on a wide range of literature and data, the chapters theorize the changes in governance, institutional diversity, and stratification in Higher Education systems, and the subsequent effects in educational and social equity. The theoretical propositions regarding high-participation Higher Education developed in these chapters are then tested in the country case studies in Part II, presenting a comprehensive enquiry into the nature of the emerging 'high participation society'.