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Educ Res Policy Prac (2008) 7:7383
DOI 10.1007/s10671-008-9045-2
Received: 22 December 2007 / Accepted: 04 February 2008 / Published online: 22 March 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract In contemplating about the quality of higher education needed for today, this paper reviews the changing concepts and expectations towards higher education. It does so by delineating the changing setting of the higher education sector, the changing understanding of scholarship, the changing economy that leads to the emergence of entrepreneurial university, and the growing globalization and internationalization of higher education. It concludes by suggesting an integrative role to be taken by the university that takes into account all the changing expectations towards higher education under new economic and social circumstances.
Introduction: changing scenarios in higher education
In his review of the development of higher education in the twenty-rst century, Altbach (1998) was rather pessimistic in saying that the university has reached the end of a period of unprecedented growth and expansion, and that the university is no longer ourishing as it did in the golden age of the middle decades of the twentieth century in North America and Europe. His observation was focused on North America and Europe, but in Asia the higher education sector has continued to grow throughout the twenty-rt century, although it is doubtful whether the Asian university has ever experienced the European golden age at all, in terms of its supremacy and autonomy in its role in research and scholarship. However, the changes in the higher education setting that Altbach delineates are a very useful start in contemplating the roles and challenges that the higher education sector is facing today. To sum up, his main observations are:
Changes in the university students. They come from much more diverse social class back
grounds, and the proportion of women in the student population has dramatically increased. Although student activism declined over the last few decades, there is a rise in student consumerism in higher education. Students worldwide have become more concerned with the
W. O. Lee (B)
Hong Kong Institute of Education, 10 Lo Ping Road, Taipo, N.T., Hong Kong e-mail: [email protected]
The repositioning of high education from its expanded visions: lifelong learning, entrepreneurship, internationalization and integration
Wing On Lee
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