Creating knowledge, strengthening nations: The changing role of higher education

Abstract

Globalization’s effects on universities have been little examined. Creating Knowledge, Strengthening Nations seeks to improve understanding by deepening the analysis of how universities contribute to economic growth and entrepreneurialism while also contributing to strategic societal goals of equity and redistributive justice. Editors Glen A. Jones, Patricia L. McCarney, and Michael L. Skolnik have brought together a diverse group of contributors to describe how internal and external forces arising from globalization are exerting pressure to change the role of higher education in society and how universities are dealing with these pressures. The essays pay particular attention to tensions associated with attempts to balance the economic with the non-economic objectives of higher education, and between those who celebrate the ‘entrepreneurial university’ versus those who lament the new alignment between the university and the business community as undermining the civic responsibility of the university and its freedom of speech and critical inquiry. Creating Knowledge, Strengthening Nations is a crucial addition to the debate on the future of higher education.