Universities have been propelled into the center of the global political economy of knowledge production by a number of factors: mass education, academic capitalism, the globalization of knowledge, the democratization of communication in the era of the Internet, and the emergence of the knowledge and innovation economy. The latest book in the International Studies in Higher Education series, Universities and the Public Sphere addresses the vital role of research universities as global public spheres, sites where public interaction, conversation and deliberation take place, where the nature of...

Higher education has entered centre-stage in the context of the knowledge economy and has been deployed in the search for economic competitiveness and social development. Against this backdrop, this highly illuminating Handbook explores worldwide convergences and divergences in national higher education systems resulting from increased global co-operation and competition.

This comprehensive book provides a collection of the critical papers that have been published in the fast-growing field of the globalization of higher education. They include work by a variety of noted scholars, such as Altbach, Clark and Marginson, which cover key areas of theoretical and substantive interest. This volume, along with an original introduction, will be of relevance to academics, researchers and students undertaking higher education research, as well as to the wider social science and public policy communities.

This title is a state of the art survey of the global trends and major country initiatives in STEM (learning and work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). It gives an international overview of issues such as: STEM strategy and coordination; curricula, teaching and assessment; women in STEM; indigenous students; research training; STEM in the graduate labour markets; and STEM breadth and STEM depth.

In the last half century higher education has moved from the fringe to the centre of society and accumulated a long list of social functions. In the English-speaking world, Europe and much of East Asia more than two thirds of all school students enter tertiary education. Bulging at the seams, universities are fountains of new knowledge, engines of prosperity and innovation, drivers of regional growth, skilled migration and global competitiveness, and makers of equality of opportunity. Yet they can do little to stop growing income inequality, and in the English-speaking countries, government...