The Responsive University: Restructuring for High Performance

In The Responsive University, William G. Tierney brings together a distinguished group of practitioners and scholars to describe how colleges and universities might respond effectively to changing social, demographic, and political forces. In each chapter, the contributors diagnose a specific problem and show how solutions can be found by reorienting basic work structures and designing nimbler, more creative organizations. Their goal is to encourage systemic change throughout the academy, and they propose far-reaching changes in such areas as management, marketing, and assessment. The Responsive University provides practical, real-world solutions for achieving high performance in colleges and universities.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Introduction. On The Road To Recovery And Renewal: Reinventing Academe Chapter 1. Listening to The People We Serve Chapter 2. Tenure Is Dead. Long Live Tenure Chapter 3. Forming New Social Partnerships Chapter 4. The Implications Of The Changed Environment For Governance In Higher Education Chapter 5. Achieving High Performance: The Policy Dimension Conclusion. The Responsive University In The Twenty-First Century Contributors Index

About the Author :
William G. Tierney is the Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education and the director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at the University of Southern California. His books include Promotion and Tenure: Community and Socialization in Academe and Building Communities of Difference: Higher Education in the 21st Century.

Review :
The book's forward-thinking recommendations should provide useful guideposts as readers assess the challenges and constraints facing their own universities. -- Elaine El-Khawas Studies in Higher Education This book may startle some people... Definitely food for thought. Virginia Quarterly Review The deliberately challenging essays provide both compelling arguments and practical discussions of the implications of these arguments... Like Tierney's other works... this volume is well edited, well written, and challenging. Choice This book is about getting out of the box. It is about rethinking fundamental assumptions of higher education. To survive and thrive in the next century, colleges and universities will have to be responsive in the eyes of those being served. Future Survey Their critical, balanced guide to the for-profit sector presents a welcome antidote to the ill-informed hysteria that has greeted its arrival on both sides of the pond. -- Geoffrey Alderman Times Higher Education Supplement