Lowering Higher Education: The Rise of Corporate Universities and the Fall of Liberal Education

What happens to the liberal arts and science education when universities attempt to sell it as a form of job training? In Lowering Higher Education, a follow-up to their provocative 2007 book Ivory Tower Blues, James E. Côté and Anton L. Allahar explore the subverted 'idea of the university' and the forces that have set adrift the mission of these institutions. Côté and Allahar connect the corporatization of universities to a range of contentious issues within higher education, from lowered standards and inflated grades to the overall decline of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences instruction. Lowering Higher Education points to a fundamental disconnect between policymakers, who may rarely set foot in contemporary classrooms, and the teachers who must implement their educational policies-which the authors argue are poorly informed-on a daily basis. Côté and Allahar expose stakeholder misconceptions surrounding the current culture of academic disengagement and supposed power of new technologies to motivate students. While outlining what makes the status quo dysfunctional, Lowering Higher Education also offers recommendations that have the potential to reinvigorate liberal education.

Table of Contents:
Introduction PART I: The Rise of Pseudo-Vocationalism A History of a Mission Adrift: The Idea of a University Subverted The University in Historical Perspective: The First Millennium The Drift Associated with Massification The Drift toward Vocationalism The Drift toward Corporatization The Drift Associated with Social Engineering The Spoils of the Culture Wars Re-engaging the University Conclusion: Into the Second Millennium of the University Stakeholder Relations: The Educational Forum Conflict and Complicity: Case Studies Conflicts in the Arena Complicity in the Grandstands: The Scourge of Human Conclusion: Whither Free Enquiry? PART II: Issues Associated with the Drift to Pseudo-Vocationalism Standards: Schools without Scholarship? The Student Side of the Disengagement Compact The Teacher / Learning Environment Side of the Disengagement Compact The Two-Tiered System: The Spread of the BA-lite in the Credentialist Era Conclusion: Preserving Scholarship Universities: Crisis, What Crisis? Defining the University's Crisis Shooting the Messenger Conclusion: 'Captain, we are off course!' 'Nonsense, you are imagining things.' Students: Is Disengagement Inevitable? Get Used to It! It Is Unrealistic to Expect More Students Have Busy Lives It's Always Been Like This: Historical Considerations There Are No Disengagement Problems Students Are Smarter Now and Just Bored Professor Are Bad Teachers: It's Their Fault Variation in Disengagement: New Empirical Evidence Conclusion: Enough Excuses Technologies: Will They Save the Day? Claims Regarding New Technologies The Evidence Conclusions: Mixed Support and Moral Entrepreneurs PART III: The Way Forward into the New Millennium Recommendations and Conclusions: Our Stewardship of the System What to Do What Not to Do: Managing the Line between Mass and Élite Universities Conclusion Notes Index

About the Author :
James E. Côté is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario. Anton L. Allahar is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario.