Discourses of Globalisation and Higher Education Reforms

This book examines some of the major higher education reforms and policy shifts globally, particularly in the light of recent shifts in quality and standards-driven education and policy research. It critiques the neo-liberal ideological imperatives of current higher education and policy reforms, and illustrates the way that changes in the relationship between the state and higher education policy affect current trends in higher education reforms. Using diverse comparative education paradigms from critical theory to historical-comparative research, the chapters focus on globalisation, ideology and higher education reforms and examine both the reasons and outcomes of higher education reforms and policy change. The book analyses and evaluates the policy shifts in methodological approaches to globalisation and higher education reforms, and their impact on education policy and pedagogy. The book contributes in a very scholarly way, to a more holistic understanding of the nexus between globalisation, comparative education research and higher education reforms. "In 'Discourses of Globalisation and Higher Education Reforms', the 27th volume of the series 'Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research', Joseph Zajda and James Jacob present major chapters on higher education reform in the USA and elsewhere highlighting the inroads that neo-liberalism has made into policy making at higher education institutions. The chapters also illustrate the way universities have been reinventing themselves to meet the demands of a knowledge society in which corporate values of efficiency, performance and managerialism drive the agenda. What are the effects of internationalisation on higher education in the universities of today? With chapters from internationally respected scholars from around the globe, this book seeks to address the many issues of the new reality in higher education." – Professor Suzanne Majhanovich, Western University, Canada