Each year colleges and universities strive to increase their national standing in the academic hierarchy, and the behavior associated with this “striving” has taken many forms. In recent years research has examined the nature of such “striving” to frame how it might be studied, and to examine how striving impacts various aspects of institutional functioning, including but not limited to admissions, pricing/cost, faculty work-life, and educational quality. This Handbook chapter contributes to this growing area of research by synthesizing recent studies on striving to (a) better recognize striving institutions (b) understand the forces compelling striving (c) explore striving behaviors (d) examine possible consequences of institutional striving and (e) identify areas for future research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aldersley, S. F. (1995). “Upward drift” is alive and well: Research/doctoral model still attractive to institutions. Change, 27(5), 50–56.
Alpert, D. (1985). Performance and paralysis: The organizational context of the American research university. Journal of Higher Education, 56(3), 241–281.
Anderson, J. D. (1997). Training the apostles of liberal culture: Black higher education 1900–1935. In L. F. Goodchild & H. S. Wechsler (Eds.), The history of higher education(2nd ed.). ASHE Reader Series (pp. 432–458). Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.
Astin, A. W. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Astin, A. W., & Chang, M. J. (1995). Colleges that emphasize research and teaching: Can you have your cake and eat it too? Change, 27(5), 44–49.
Astin, A. W., & Lee, C. B. T. (1972). The invisible colleges. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Austin, A. E., & McDaniels, M. (in press). Preparing the professoriate of the future: Graduate student socialization for faculty roles. In J. C. Smart (Ed.), Higher education: Handbook of theory and research (Vol. XXI, pp. 397–456). Netherlands: Springer.
Avery, C., Fairbanks, A., & Zeckhauser, R. (2001). What worms for the early bird: Early admissions at elite colleges. KSG Working Paper No. RW PO1-049. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Public Policy.
Berdahl, R. O. (1985). Strategy and government: U.S. State systems and institutional role and mission. International Journal of Institutional Management in Higher Education, 9(3), 301–307.
Birnbaum, R. (1983). Maintaining institutional diversity in higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Birnbaum, R. (1988). How colleges work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Birnbaum, R. (2000, January/February). The life cycle of academic management fads. The Journal of Higher Education, 71(1), 1–16.
Blackburn, R. T., & Lawrence, J. H. (1995). Faculty at work: Motivation, expectation, satisfaction. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Blau, P. M. (1994). The organization of academic work (2nd ed.). London: Transaction Publishers.
Bolman, L., & Deal, T. (1997). Reframing organizations (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bowen, H. (1977). Investment in learning: The individual and social value of American higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bowen, H. R. (1980). The costs of higher education: How much do colleges and universities spend per students and how much should they spend? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Brewer, D. J., Gates, S. M., & Goldman, C. A. (2001). In pursuit of prestige: Strategy and competition in U.S. higher education. Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publisher.
Brewer, D. J., Gates, S. M., & Goldman, C. A. (2002). In pursuit of prestige: Strategy and competition in U.S. higher education. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Clark, B. R. (1987). The academic life: Small worlds, different worlds. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Clotfelter, C. T. (1996). Buying the best: Cost escalation in elite higher education. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Commission Report. (2006, retrieved July 1). Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Washington, DC www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/index.html.
Dichev, I. (2001). News or noise? Estimating the noise in the U.S. News university rankings. Research in Higher Education, 42, 237–266.
DiMaggio, P., & Powell, W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147–160.
Dubrow, G., Moseley, B., & Dustin, D. (2006). Life at mission creep U. Academe, 92(3), 24–28.
Ehrenberg, R. G. (2000). Tuition rising: Why college costs so much. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Ehrenberg, R. G. (2003). Reaching for the brass ring: The U.S. News and World Report Rankings and Competition. The Review of Higher Education, 26(2), 145–162.
Ehrenberg, R. G., Zhang, L., & Levin, J. M. (2006). Crafting a class: The Trade-off between merit scholarships and enrolling lower-income students. The Review of Higher Education, 29(2), 195–212.
Ehrlich, T. (2006). Choosing a college. Carnegie Perspectives. http://www. carnegiefoundation.org/perspectives.
Eide, E., Brewer, D. J., & Ehrenberg, D. G. (1998). Does it pay to attend an elite private college? Evidence on the effects of undergraduate college quality on graduate school attendance. Economics of Education Review, 17(4), 371–376.
Fairweather, J. S. (1993). Academic values and faculty rewards. Review of Higher Education, 17(91), 43–68.
Finkelstein, M. (1983) From tutor to specialized scholar: Academic professionalization in eighteenth and nineteenth century America. History of Higher Education Annual, 3.
Finnegan, D. E. (1993). Segmentation in the academic labor market. Journal of Higher Education, 64(6), 621–656.
Finnegan, D. E., & Gamson, Z. F. (1996). Disciplinary adaptations to research culture in comprehensive institutions. Review of Higher Education, 19(2), 141–177.
Geiger, R. L. (1993). Research, graduate education and the ecology of American universities: An imperative history. The European and American University since 1800: Historical and Sociological Essays, (Eds.) Rothblatt, S., & Wittrock, B. Cambridge University Press.
Geiger, R. L. (1997). Research, graduate education and the ecology of American universities: An interpretive history. In L. F. Goodchild & H. S. Wechsler (Eds.), The History of Higher Education (2nd ed.). ASHE reader series (pp. 273–289). Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.
Geiger, R. L. (2004). Knowledge and money: Research universities and the paradox of the marketplace. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Goodchild, L. F. (1997). The turning point in American Jesuit higher education: The standardization controversy between the Jesuits and the North Central Association, 1915–1940. In L. F. Goodchild & H. S. Wechsler (Eds.), The history of higher education (2nd ed.). ASHE reader series (pp. 528–550). Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.
Hagedorn, L. S. (Ed.). (2000, Spring). What contributes to job satisfaction among faculty and staff. New Directions for Institutional Research (Vol. 105). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Henderson, B. B., & Kane, W. D. (1991). Caught in the middle: Faculty and institutional status and quality in state comprehensive universities. Higher Education, 22, 339–350.
Hossler, D. (2000). The problem with college rankings. About Campus, 20–24.
McDonough, P. M., Antonio, A. L., Walpole, M. B., & Perez, L. X. (1998). College rankings: Democratized college knowledge for whom? Research in Higher Education, 39(5): 513–537.
Jencks, C., & Riesman, D. (1968). The academic revolution. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Kuh, G. D., & Pascarella, E. T. (2004). What does institutional selectivity tell us about educational quality? Change, 36(5), 52–58.
Lachs, J. (1965, March). Graduate programmes in undergraduate colleges. Journal of Higher Education, 121–130.
Lee, J. J., & Rhoads, J. A. (2003). Faculty entrepreneurialism and the challenge to undergraduate education. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Lovett, C. M. (2005). The perils of pursuing prestige. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 51(20), B20.
Machung, A. (1998, July/August). Playing the rankings game. Change, 30(4), 12–17.
Massy, W. F., & Zemsky, R. (1994). Faculty discretionary time. Journal of Higher Education, 65(1), 1–22.
McCormick, A. C. (2005). A new set of lenses for looking at colleges and universities. Perspectives. Retrieved July 25, 2006, from http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/perspectives/sub.asp?key=245&subkey=882.
McPherson, M., & Schapiro, M. (1999). The future economic challenges to liberal arts colleges. Daedalus, 128(1), 47–73.
Meredith, M. (2004). Why do universities compete in the ratings game? An empirical analysis of the effects of the U.S. News and World Report college rankings. Research in Higher Education, 45(5), 443–461.
Milem, J. F., Berger, J. B., & Dey, E. L. (2000). Faculty time allocation: A study of change over twenty years. The Journal of Higher Education, 71(4), 454–475.
Monks, J., & Ehrenberg, R. G. (1999a, November/December). U.S. News and World Report rankings: Why they do matter. Change, 43–51.
Monks, J., & Ehrenberg, R. G. (1999b). The impact of U.S. News & World Report college rankings on admissions outcomes and pricing policies at selective private institutions. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Morphew, C. C. (2000). The Realities of strategic planning: Program termination at East Central University. Review of Higher Education, 23(3), 257–280.
Morphew, C. C. (2005). Conceptualizing change in the institutional diversity of U.S. colleges and universities. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association. Montreal, Canada.
Morphew, C. C. (2002). A rose by any other name: Which colleges became universities. Review of Higher Education, 25(2), 207–224.
Morphew, C. C., & Baker, B. D. (2004). The cost of prestige: Do new research one universities incur increased administrative costs? Review of Higher Education, 27(3), 365–384.
Morphew, C. C., & Huisman, J. (2002). Using institutional theory to reframe research on academic drift. Higher Education in Europe, 27(4), 491–506.
Morphew, C. C., & Jenniskens, C. G. M. (1999). Assessing institutional change at the level of the faculty: Examining faculty motivators and new degree programs. In B. Jong, P. Bloed, P. Maassen, & G. Neave (Eds.). From the eye of the storm: Higher educations changing institution (pp. 95–120). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Meyer, J. W., Scott, W. R., & Deal, T. E. (1981). Institutional and technical sources of organizational structure: Explaining the structure of educational organizations. In H. D. Stein (Ed.), Organization and the Human Services. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Ogren, C. A. (1995). Where coeds were coeducated: Normal schools in Wisconsin, 1870–1920. History of Education Quarterly, 35, 1–26.
Oliver, C. (1991). Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review, 16(1), 145–179.
O’Meara, K. (2002). Uncovering the values in faculty evaluation of service as scholarship. Review of Higher Education, 26(1), 57–80.
O’Meara, K., & Bloomgarden, A. (2006). The Cost of Prestige. Unpublished paper. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Amherst.
O’Meara, K., Terosky, A., & Neumann, A. (2006). Unpublished proposal for ASHE-ERIC report, University of Massachusetts. Amherst.
Parker, C. W., & O’Donnell, M. L. (2006). Some observations on the federal regulation of higher education. Issue paper released by the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affect students: A third decade of research (Vol 2). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pike, G. R. (2004). Measuring quality: A Comparison of U.S. News rankings and NSEE benchmarks. Research in Higher Education, 45(2), 193–208.
Postman, N. (1995). The End of education: Redefining the value of school. New York: Knopf.
Pusser, B. (2004). Knowledge and money: Research universities and the paradox of the marketplace. [Review of the book Knowledge and money: Research universities and the paradox of the marketplace]. Academe, 90(6), 115.
Rice, R. E., Sorcinelli, M. D., & Austin, A. E. (2000). Heeding new voices: Academic careers for a new generation. New Pathways Inquiry No. 7. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.
Reich, R. (2002). The Future of Success: Working and Living in the new Economy. Random House.
Riesman, D. (1956). Constraint and variety in American education. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Ruscio, K. P. (1987). The distinctive scholarship of the selective liberal arts college. Journal of Higher Education, 58(2), 205–222.
Sarraf, S., Hayek, J., Kandiko, C., Padgett, R., & Harris, K. (2005, November 18). The institutional quality debate: U.S. News Quality indicators and the National Survey of Student Engagement. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Philadelphia, PA.
Schultz, R. E., & Stickler, W. H. (1965, Summer). Vertical extension of academic programs in institutions of higher education. Educational Record, 231–241.
Schuster, J., & Finkelstein, M. (2006). The American Faculty: The restructuring of Academic work and careers. Simon & Schuster.
Scott, W. R. (1995). Institutions and organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Shaw, K. M., & LeChasseur, K. (2005). Shifting missions at an urban university: The trade-off between equity and excellence. Symposium presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Philadelphia, PA.
Slaughter, S., & Leslie, L. L. (1997). Academic capitalism: Politics, policies, and the entrepreneurial university. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic capitalism and the new economy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Slaughter, S., & Silva, E. (1985). Towards a political economy of retrenchment: The American public research universities. The Review of Higher Education, 8(4), 295–318.
Stadtman, V. A. (1980). Academic adaptations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sweitzer, K., & Volkwein, J. (2005, November). The Influences on prestige and reputation at research universities and liberal arts colleges. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Philadelphia, PA.
Thelin, J. (2004). A History of American higher education. Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tierney, W. G., & Bensimon, E. M. (1996). Promotion and tenure: Community and socialization in academe. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Volkwein, J. F., & Sweitzer, K. V. (2006). The influences on prestige and reputation at research universities and liberal arts colleges. Research in Higher Education, 47(2), 129–148.
Ward, K., & Wolf-Wendel, L. (2003, November). Academic life and motherhood: Variations by institutional type. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Portland, Oregon.
Wawrzynski, M. (2004, November). The impact of faculty behaviors on student engagement. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Kansas City, Missouri.
Webster, T. (2001). A principal component analysis of the U.S. News and World report tier rankings of colleges and universities. Economics of Education Review, 20(3), 235–244.
Winston, G. (2000, April). The positional arms race in higher education. Williams Project on the Economy of higher education, Discussion Paper 54.
Wolf-Wendel, L., & Ward, K. (2005, November). Faculty life at comprehensives: Between a rock and a hard place. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Philadelphia, PA.
Zemsky, R. (1990). The lattice and the ratchet. Policy Perspectives, 2(4).
Zemsky, R., Wegner, G., & Massy, W. (2005, July 15). Today’s colleges must be market smart and mission centered. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B6
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Meara, K.O. (2007). Striving for What? Exploring the Pursuit of Prestige. In: Smart, J.C. (eds) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5666-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5666-6_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-5665-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-5666-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)