Why do we go to university? Who do we become there? Higher education is frequently presented as a route to employment and economic growth. Yet universities are more than factories, and students more than units of human capital. With over 250 million students enrolled worldwide, higher education must also fulfill profoundly educational and humanistic purposes-fostering students as autonomous agents of personal and social transformation. In this pioneering book, Dr Soyoung Lee advances a new framework of higher education as a process of students' academic self-formation, emphasizing the critical yet often neglected roles of student agency and knowledge. Building on and rejuvenating William Perry's seminal research on student development through engagement with knowledge, the book demonstrates academic study enables students to realize themselves as independent, self-determining individuals in society. Uniting conceptual analysis with vivid accounts of students' lived experience, Empowering Student Minds draws on sociology, psychology and educational theories to give voice to students across Western and East Asian contexts, with particular attention to South Korean students. The framework is extended by comparisons between domestic and international students, and across STEM, social sciences, and arts and humanities disciplines. Moreover, the influence of Confucian traditions enriches this global conversation on student agency, offering a vital counterpoint to dominant Western perspectives. As the first comprehensive study of academic self-formation, Empowering Student Minds lays the foundations for a new research program with wide-ranging applications. It speaks to scholars, policymakers and practitioners across higher education, while also resonating with students themselves. By showing how students transform themselves through higher education, rather than being simply transformed by it, Empowering Student Minds reclaims the intrinsic purposes of higher education-revitalizing its role in cultivating intellectual exploration, personal growth and empowered student agency beyond the constraints of neoliberal policy.
