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| Unit name |
Universities Since 1945: Mass Higher Education and the Rise of the Global University |
| Unit code |
HISTM2020 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
M/7
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
|
| Unit director |
Dr. Wei |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department |
Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
This unit will explore the many transformations that have re-shaped universities across the world since 1945, focusing in particular on the development of mass higher education and the rise of the global university, and seeking consistently to identify and understand the changing roles of students, academics and managers.
Key topics will include: ideas about the fundamental purpose of universities (and here we will look back to the nineteenth century); sources of funding, especially the balance between public and private; the relationship between universities and states; relationships between industry and universities, with particular emphasis on growing entrepreneurialism in research; education as a form of international trade and the increasing importance of the market; the growth of managerialism in universities and debates about leadership; the impact of world rankings and issues of cultural imperialism; the student experience, including student protest; the significance of regionalism; and the emergence of the global university.
The units specific aims are as follows:
- To develop students understanding of the ways in which universities have changed since 1945.
- To develop students ability to analyse the roles played by students, academics and managers in universities.
- To develop students understanding of the complexity that must inform policy-making in the university sector.
- To place students in direct contact with the current research interests of the academic tutor and to enable them to explore the issues surrounding the state of research in the field.
- To develop students ability to work with primary sources relating to this field
- To develop students abilities to integrate primary source material into a wider historical analysis
- To develop students ability to learn independently within a small-group context
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the unit students should have:
- Developed an understanding of how and why mass higher education has developed since 1945.
- Acquired a range of perspectives on the emergence of the global university today.
- Improved their ability to scrutinise and treat critically historical documents.
- become more adept at contributing to and learning from a small-group environment
Teaching Information
10 x 1.5 hour seminars
Assessment Information
A 5000 word summative essay will assess the students understanding of both the development of higher education since 1945 and its historiography, and their ability critically to scrutinise and deploy primary sources.
Reading and References
- D. Bok, Universities in the Marketplace: the Commercialization of Higher Education (Princeton, 2003)
- M. Kwiek, The University and the State: a Study into Global Transformations (Frankfurt, 2006)
- L. Salmi, The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities (Washington, D.C, 2009)
- H. T. Shapiro, A Larger Sense of Purpose: Higher Education and Society (Princeton, 2005)
- S. Slaughter and L.L. Leslie, Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University (Baltimore, 1997)
- B. Wildavsky, The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities are Reshaping the World (Princeton, 2010)
