Issue
27(1)
The
Future of Higher Education: Rhetoric, Reality, and the Risks of
the Market. (2004).
Framk Newman, Lara Couturier, and
Jamie Scurry. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 304 pp. $35.
ISBN # 0-7879-6972-9
Review by:
Jenni
Stacy-Adams
Academic Advising Center
University
of Iowa
How
do external forces influence higher education today? This
book, written by staff at the Futures Project: Policy for Higher
Education in a Changing World, provides an overview of research
and suggests recommendations to institutions assessing modern
day influences. Throughout the book the authors use specific
institutions to illustrate their examples.
The book begins by explaining how market forces such as increased
competition from for-profit universities and political/legislative
policies provide competition and regulation to higher education.
It then illustrates the disconnect between public expectations
of education and current student experiences. I particularly
enjoyed reading how some institutions have prioritized increasing
institutional rankings through research and admission of high
achieving students. Changes such as increasing diversity
in student backgrounds, students shopping among schools for convenient
classes, and increased emphasis on revenue development are also
addressed.
The second half of the book offers recommendations to institutions.
Chapters focusing on increasing autonomy and accountability of
institutions, measuring student learning, expanding access and
minority achievement in higher education, funding competitive
teaching and service grants will help institutions plan for (rather
than react to) external pressures. The book challenges higher
education to train students not for vocation but for citizenship,
to serve as a safe location for controversial debates, and to
conduct research that expands knowledge and benefits the public.
The final chapters address effective strategic planning and implementation
as well as outline reasons that market changes will continue to
influence higher education in future years.
This book would greatly benefit university administrators and
legislative policy makers, and advising directors will also benefit
from reflecting on how changes in higher education have and will
continue to impact society. As advisors our insights about
student experiences are particularly important to institutions
as they reexamine their higher education goals. Advisors
who understand how external forces influence funding and strategic
plans will increase their effectiveness when lobbying administration
for student-centered issues such as tuition funding and enrollment
management issues.
The sixty pages of notes, references, and subject/name indexes
found at the end of the book prove how dense the factual content
is. I found the summaries at end of each chapter useful;
an advisor with limited time might benefit from reading these
first.
