Reshaping the University

The global economic crisis has required governments across the globe to reconsider their spending priorities. It is within this demanding economic context that higher education systems have been steadily restructured with in many ways the English model in the vanguard of change. This book focuses in particular upon the policy of removing almost entirely public support for the payment of student fees. This has emerged from a steady process of change, which has broad political support and is underwritten by the idea that higher education is now seen more as a private than a public, good. As this shift has occurred (not a new innovation but rather a return to what once prevailed as more of a market in English higher education) so the relationship between government and the higher education has evolved with the latter now attempting to steer the development of the system through a state-regulated market. The book has a strong comparative dimension that draws upon US higher education to illustrate both the possible advantages and potential hazards to the marketization strategy. It concludes that any such strategy needs to be accompanied by state regulation if it is to function effectively, particularly to stimulate price competition, encourage innovation from new entrants, and provide consumer protection for students paying high fees.

Autorentext

David Palfreyman, MA, MBA, LLB, FRSA is the Bursar of a Fellow of New College, University; he is also the Director of the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (www.oxcheps.new.ox.ac.uk). He has written extensively on the law of higher education (with Dennis Farrington) and on the idea of the collegial tradition (mainly with Ted Tapper). His publications also include research into both London's Livery Companies and Inns of Court. He is a co-editor of the Routledge 20-plus volume comparative series, 'International Studies in Higher Education' (as detailed at the OxCHEPS website). David also serves as the Honorary Treasurer and a Trustee of the Society for Research into Higher Education. Ted Tapper spent most of his academic career at the University of Sussex (1968-2003). He is an Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of Sussex, and also holds a research professorship at the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (OxCheps) which is based at New College, Oxford. At Sussex he was a member of the Department of International Relations and Politics, completing his career as departmental chair. He is a fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) and with David Palfreyman and Scott Thomas (Claremont Graduate University, California), is Series Editor for the Routledge comparative series, 'International Studies in Higher Education'.