Rating: 
Summary: Excellent analysis on higher education
Review: This is an excellent analysis of the current state of affairs in higher education. The book includes 14 chapters including the conclusion. Each chapter can be read independently, as they follow the famed Harvard case study method. Each chapter describes a unique issue impacting higher education. Some of these interesting issues include: a) the advent and so far failing of online higher education; b) the success of for profit publicly traded university companies; c) the new sources of funds for universities, including copyrights and patents; d) the ongoing restructuring of undergraduate core curriculum to please the students and private industry; e) the shrinking government subsidization of public universities and their resulting de facto privatization; f) the compromising of the independence of university research when financed by the private sector; and f) various attempts to revive the liberal arts discipline within an increasingly profit driven higher education culture.
Throughout these issues, the authors covers recurring themes. These include the many conflict of interest between: a) intellectual culture and profits; b) professors' research activities and undergraduate teaching; c) practical job oriented education and liberal arts.
Some of these fascinating themes beg the questions of what is knowledge? What is culture? Even what is critical thinking? During the Renaissance the answer to such questions would include being fluent in both Latin and Greek in addition to a couple of vernacular languages. It also entailed having an extremely developed art appreciation supported by demonstrated artistic capabilities. A broad and deep understanding of most aspects of science was also important. Thus, in comparison to this ideal Renaissance Mind model, we are really all a bunch of illiterates no matter how well educated we are.
The author finishes the book by asking what will be the Latin and Greek disciplines of tomorrow. What he means by that is what will be the dying intellectual disciplines that will not survive our practical and profit driven culture. He ventures to offer some candidates for the intellectual cemetery, including: English literature, pure mathematics, foreign languages, maybe sociology and other liberal arts disciplines. He mentions these with much sadness. He does not want it to happen. But, he suggests that the painting may be on the wall.
The bright side of the coin is that higher education has never been so alive. Universities attempt a cocktail of different strategies to survive and thrive. Also, a bunch of smart institutions are attacking the higher education monopoly from all sides. Students of all ages never had so many opportunities to acquire higher learning in so many different ways. None of us does speak Latin and Greek anymore. But, we all have infinite opportunities to keep on learning throughout our lives be it a certification in C++ programming, or a business or law degree from specialized institutions. Also, online education is bound to make a come back and compound learning opportunities for all of us. What's wrong with all that? Not much really.
Thus, there is a lot of food for thought in this book. You will never think of higher education quite the same way after reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Top Down
Review: What an engaging book, neat anecdotes abound. Each chapter presents a case study of some kind to show the sorts of adjustments colleges and universities make to gain and maintain competitive advantage. Much has been written of the packaging of students for display and evaluation by university admissions committees. This book explores the opposite end. Kirp shows how NYU wooed the finest analytic philosophers money can buy in order to gain top students and international reputation, how many public universities are rethinking their commitments to their charter states as the tax-based funding dwindles, and how schools such as DeVry, Phoenix, and many two-year colleges now fill a niche offering IT certification, practical courses most universities choose to ignore.One of my favorite chapters exhibits the cooperation of several small southern liberal arts colleges in an effort to maximize the utility of the internet and defy the complications of location to offer a world class education in the Classics. The chapter on the University of Chicago's efforts to market itself by emphasizing the rigors and intensity of its offerings at the expense of its reputation as a party school provides some humorous moments. Kirp seems to know all of the people he needs to know to get the stories straight and compelling. From the brainstorming of catchy college name to the purchase of science departments by the funding dollar, public and private, Kirp explores the variety of decisions, the successes and failures of faculty involvement, and the remarkable institutional overhauls that occur while remaining solvent and functional. Money changes everything for the college and university. It seems all institutions need more of it, yet Kirp shows how many schools and their leaders are able to adapt to the market without compromising everything of value. The book fascinates so because the institutional norm is an aberration and so much of the success of an institution in its upkeep depends on the personality of the place, its faculty, and alumni. Would that each endowment provided its school with enough to prevent it from having to hire the marketeers for the make-overs. I have never read a book such as this, one that combines the hurt and impetus of wanting money and reputation with the creative and curious ways approaching a fix.
Rating:
Summary: Lover's Quarrel with Higher Education
Review: With sharp-edged sympathy, David Kirp tells us in a shrewd, example-rich, and compelling narrative why we should worry more than we do about whether the ability to keep their moral balance is hard-wired into higher education's genes. As good a writer as he is a thinker, Kirp can simplify his subject even as he reveals the complexity of the current scene and the dilemmas college and university leaders face. The picture he paints shows educational leaders mixing creative thinking with short-sightedness, economic tough-mindedness with decisions that could sell key values short. Kirp's argument with higher education is a measured one because his is a lover's quarrel. Unmoved by nostalgia but indignant when core values get compromised, he describes with equal fervor the people and institutions whose moral compass is off and those breaking new ground with a clear eye on values. Among the book's most appealing features is the author's teacherly style. He is provocative but not unfair, objective but not coy about it--the reader knows where he stands. Kirp likes an argument better tnan most, and he writes to stimulate dialogue as much as to inform. The reader is likely to come away from this book looking around for a companion so he or she can keep the dialogue going.
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