Alberto Amaral – författare

This volume presents the most comprehensive international discussion of the role of markets in higher education ever published. It reflects on both the political and economic implications of the rising trend towards introducing market elements in higher education. The book draws together many leading international scholars in the economic and policy analysis of higher education to explore different theoretical perspectives and present new empirical evidence on market mechanisms in higher education in several Western countries.

The authors present a dispassionate and ideologically neutral view of the advantages and disadvantages of the introduction of market-mechanisms in higher education and of its effects in terms of access, equity, quality of provision, student learning, research and scholarship, and so on. And they balance the performance of markets in higher education against the alternative of more, or a different kind of, governmental intervention.

Starting from the now classical book by Ladislav Cerych and Paul Sabatier (1986), the editors present a critical appreciation of that initial work and a review and critical appraisal of current empirical policy research in higher education.

In the second part, a set of chapters analyses the effective and specific complexities of the implementation of higher education policies in several countries, offering a wide variety of situations both in terms of duration of implementation, legal objectives, adequacy of causal theories underlying the reforms, adequacy of financial resources and degree of commitment of the main actors of the process. Some of these chapters use alternative theoretical frameworks developed since the 1986 Cerych and Sabatier theorization to interpret the empirical results, and some national cases do not fall within the scope of Cerych and Sabatier’s analysis. The national case studies are: Australia (2), Austria, Finland, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, the UK and the USA.

On the occasion of Mary Henkel’s seventieth birthday a group of her colleagues have come together to write this volume of articles as a tribute to her work and a token of gratitude for contributions to higher education research. The authors analyse these developments leading up to and possibly beyond the present in a tribute to Mary Henkel’s work using her birthday as an occasion to focus attention on her contributions to higher education research – something she would normally seek to avoid.

This book is also a contribute to understanding how research in higher education has developed since its origins as Mary Henkel was one of its founding scholars together with other well-known researchers such as Maurice Kogan, Guy Neave, Ulrich Teichler, Martin Trow, Burton Clark, etc. The book will be useful to all researchers in areas related to higher education, namely governance, academic work, academic identities and quality.

Illustrating how governments have historically always tried to exert some degree of control over universities, this Handbook explores ways institutions have adapted to these changing pressures. Contributors review the diverse societal roles played by higher education institutions, including serving the Church, training public bureaucrats, building the nation- state, preserving national culture, promoting social mobility, and ensuring economic competitiveness. They focus in particular on recent developments in university governance, critically analysing the influence of neoliberal politics, academic capitalism, and the knowledge society on higher education.

This Handbook will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of education economics, management, policy and administration, as well as sociologists and political scientists. It will also be essential reading for leaders and administrators at higher education institutions seeking to design and implement effective higher education policies.