Higher Education and its Communities

* What does 'community' mean in the context of higher education? * How is it changing, as colleges and universities are 'opened up' to influences in their environment and have to respond? * What might the future look like, especially given developments in information and communications technology? Universities and colleges have long been seen as academic communities. This book explores how the nature of these communities is changing under pressure for autonomy to be balanced by accountability; and from resource constraints from the state that is now a sponsor or client rather than a patron (leading to competition rather than collegiality). It also explains the positions of higher education institutions in relation to their regional communities, minority groups, the work of the European Community, and links to employers and learning in the community, at work and elsewhere. The final section of Higher Education and its Communities looks at how new technologies open up the global community but also may affect relationships within the learning communities at the heart of higher education's core functions; and looks at the danger of a control culture in a community where IT allows, indeed requires, a record of activities and transactions that are open to surveillance. Nevertheless, the values of the academic community live on even in societies with a historical oppression and that is the message of the book's final chapter.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Community a diverse conceptualization and realization The academic community Persistent ghosts romantic origins of the idea of university communities Higher education communities and academic identity The PhD examination an exercise in community building and gatekeeping Becoming an educator communities of practice in higher education Managerialism and university managers building new academic communities or disrupting old ones? Territorial disputes the impact of quality assurance on relationships between academic and institutional values From 'ivory tower' to 'knowledge factory' the impact of industry links in a Chinese university and a British university The hinterland community The role of higher education for adults in their communities nurturing social capital Higher education and diversity regional learning infrastructures and student progression in the post-Dearing era What makes Europe different? Community processes in higher education the case of the Erasmus decision Lifelong learning in the workplace a comparison of France and the UK The future community: virtuality, reality and liberal idealism Virtual learning communities and the role of CMC conferencing practices and problems The virtual learning community informating the learning process with online learning environments Culling community from conceptual conflict a comparative analysis concerning prospects for building higher education communities in the twenty-first century Index.