British higher education is internationally perceived as being in crisis. In this book A. H. Halsey examines how the present-day situation developed. Beginning with the 1963 Robbins Report, he argues that, despite the subsequent expansion of higher education, this initiative represented a failed thrust towards mass higher education. He shows how the rise of liberal economic policies was irrelevant to the long-term decline of academic power and demonstrates how power has ebbed away from academics towards government, and towards students and industry as consumers of education and research. Professor Halsey's arguments are buttressed by extensive surveys, carried out in 1964, 1976, and 1989, which chart the development of academic opinion in universities and polytechnics. The survey reveals low morale, disappointment, and resentment; but these feelings are still combined with a persistent belief in the British idea of university. Professor Halsey's discussion and analysis provide vital information about the current state of Britain's higher education system and offer an important contribution to the fierce debate about educational and training policies which is currently one of the central topics of British political debate.
Reviews
it may shock both policy-makers and academics into much-needed radical reform. It deserves the widest, and the wisest, readership * Times Literary Supplement *
an elegant and deeply caring review of the changing role of higher education itself * Times Higher Education Supplement *
required reading for anyone interested in the sociology of education or the relation between academia and politics * Contemporary Sociology *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198279730
Author A. H. Halsey
Format Paperback
Page Count 396
Imprint Clarendon Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 217mm * 138mm * 23mm