Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Dirges about higher education

Withering Academia?
Finishing schools for gilded youth?

The above links via Chris Dillow's interesting post Fallible preferences & universities.

See also Thoughts Occasioned (in Part) by the Closure of the French Department at SUNY-Albany.

Some of the worries are that education seems to be driven by customer coice and economic benefits. David Labarees's papers suggest that this process, at leat in the USA, has taken place over a long time: see How Dewey lost: The victory of David Snedden and social efficiency in the reform of American education and Citizens and Consumers: Changing Visions of Virtue and Opportunity in U.S. Education, 1841-2002. Perhaps owing to the success of American education, this influence is being felt elsewhere too. For the evolution of American University system and its 'success' see Larabee's Understanding the rise of American higher education: How complexity breeds autonomy .
P.S. See also Putting a Price on Professors (via Nanopolitan_

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