Content area
Full text
A Chance for European Universities, Or: Avoiding the Looming University Crisis in Europe. By Jo Ritzen. Amsterdam University Press. 224pp, Pounds 24.95. ISBN 9789089642295. Published 1 July 2010
Following hard on the heels of his influential work A Chance for the World Bank (2005), this book places Jo Ritzen at the forefront of the debate on public finance within a global context. Currently president of the University of Maastricht - and formerly vice-president of the World Bank's development economics department and the Dutch minister of education, culture and science - Ritzen is ideally placed to foresee "the looming university crisis in Europe", assess its likely impact, and suggest appropriate avoidance strategies. He performs each of these tasks with enviable breadth of scholarship and depth of insight.
In a recent interview, Ritzen said he had been moved to write the book by "the ancient political dream that a serious discussion can change the course of events". One only hopes that those with the power to bring about...