Coming to terms with mass higher education: lessons from america and beyond
Coming to terms with mass higher education: lessons from america and beyond
This article examines the legitimacy of the US as a viable source for higher education policy ideas. Can lessons be gleaned from the US system to inform the policy debate in the UK? Moreover, how are some ‘mythologies’ about higher education in the US being (mis)used in the quest for answers to the challenges facing the UK system? Is the American model quite as straightforward and benign as its British admirers profess? In spite of the equivocations, however, it is a central assumption of this article that the United States was not only the first nation to experience mass and, ultimately, universal higher education (for an interpretation of the concepts ‘elite’, ‘mass’ and ‘universal’ see Trow, 1973) but that it has also embraced this expansion in a manner that is broadly supported by a consensus of interests within the wider society and within the higher education sector.It has been perceived as a successful process of higher education expansion.
higher education, globalization, us higher education, uk higher education, higher education policy
Bassett, Roberta Malee
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Tapper, Ted
21b71ec2-daeb-4338-b8aa-4b798b3a8987
Bassett, Roberta Malee
e8fb0140-8528-4417-83a2-07602955388c
Tapper, Ted
21b71ec2-daeb-4338-b8aa-4b798b3a8987
Bassett, Roberta Malee and Tapper, Ted
(2008)
Coming to terms with mass higher education: lessons from america and beyond.
Higher Education in Europe.
(In Press)
Abstract
This article examines the legitimacy of the US as a viable source for higher education policy ideas. Can lessons be gleaned from the US system to inform the policy debate in the UK? Moreover, how are some ‘mythologies’ about higher education in the US being (mis)used in the quest for answers to the challenges facing the UK system? Is the American model quite as straightforward and benign as its British admirers profess? In spite of the equivocations, however, it is a central assumption of this article that the United States was not only the first nation to experience mass and, ultimately, universal higher education (for an interpretation of the concepts ‘elite’, ‘mass’ and ‘universal’ see Trow, 1973) but that it has also embraced this expansion in a manner that is broadly supported by a consensus of interests within the wider society and within the higher education sector.It has been perceived as a successful process of higher education expansion.
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Submitted date: 2008
Accepted/In Press date: 2008
Keywords:
higher education, globalization, us higher education, uk higher education, higher education policy
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 52035
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/52035
ISSN: 0379-7724
PURE UUID: 39cdbbc0-b6df-4c53-ab8e-9e8d002ad9fa
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Date deposited: 06 Jun 2008
Last modified: 22 Jul 2022 20:59
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Contributors
Author:
Roberta Malee Bassett
Author:
Ted Tapper
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