Higher Education

Christian Gilde is an instructor and research associate at the University of Bath.

In the 1960s, two significant events occurred. In 1963, Clark Kerr, president of the University of California, invented the concept of the multiversity in his book The Uses of the University. By that concept, Kerr meant an institution that was becoming increasingly indistinguishable from any other business enterprise in our industrial society, 'a mechanism held together by administrative rules and powered by money.' Second, in 1966, Ronald Reagan ran for governor on a platform that included 'cleaning up the mess in Berkeley.' When Reagan became president of the United States in the 1980s, a movement began to privatize and corporatize functions and institutions previously thought of as public, fueled by the questionable belief that the for-profit sector could do it less expensively and more efficiently. The chapters found in Higher Education explore the negative consequences of these trends upon colleges and universities and highlight important issues that have largely been ignored.

• Chapter 1 The Market of Higher EducationChapter 2 The Overcommercialization of Higher EducationChapter 3 The Impact of Commercialism on the ClassroomChapter 4 Commercialization Goes High-Tech: The Online ClassroomChapter 5 Education from a DistanceChapter 6 College SportsChapter 7 The Spending Nation: Liberal Education and the Privileged Place of ConsumptionChapter 8 Profits, Politics, and Social Justice in the Contemporary American UniversityChapter 9 Safeguarding Uncertain Futures