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Universities, Social Change and Transformation: Global Perspectives

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The University in its Place

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Abstract

The relationships being explored in this book can only be understood in the context of wider economic and policy shifts at global and European levels, which have dramatically altered the ways in which universities are understood and managed. It seems a long ago, distant mythical age when universities were somehow expected to dedicate themselves to producing members of governing and business elites, while at the same time undertaking disinterested research and scholarship—the further away from the day-to-day experiences of ordinary people the better. In this chapter we focus on three specific issues that have framed recent developments in higher education: the first relates to a growing emphasis on higher education as a 'private', rather than a 'public' good; the second to the repositioning of universitioes within a knowledge economy - and, in particular, their role in regional social-economies; and the third to the potential of universities as agents of social transformation - re-eductaiiong populations for a changing world. 

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Except in the UK, where mission statements of most universities have increasingly been reworked in line with the ‘wider corporate aim of income generation’ and where the concept of service to the community is today almost entirely framed in economic terms (Rolfe 2012, pp. 57–58).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

    John Brennan

  2. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

    Allan Cochrane & Ruth Williams

  3. School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Yann Lebeau

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  1. John Brennan
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  2. Allan Cochrane
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  3. Yann Lebeau
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  4. Ruth Williams
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Correspondence to John Brennan .

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Brennan, J., Cochrane, A., Lebeau, Y., Williams, R. (2018). Universities, Social Change and Transformation: Global Perspectives. In: The University in its Place. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1296-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1296-3_2

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