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This concise volume presents a series of conversations conducted by its editor with internationally renowned educators, scholars and social critics. The primary focus is on a set of important social and cultural issues and the complex nature of the global contemporary crises in higher education and economics, and the values and goals educational institutions pursue and produce. Contributors to this volume discuss why the present systems of higher education are ailing almost everywhere, and which remedies have turned out to be their poison.The contributions here investigate how and why universities and the knowledge they seek have become hostages to an ideology based on neoliberalism, economism and a fundamentalism of the market. These ideologies have reshaped higher education and contributed to its commodification and commercialization, transforming educational institutions according to a model that originated in the domains of global business enterprises. Bureaucratization and the growth of a managerial class in higher education have led to universities that focus on what is purportedly marketable, while neglecting the commitment to the pursuit of truth, the education of character and the cultivation of civic values that informed older educational models. The contributors to this book argue, from many different angles, for resistance to these recent developments within higher education.

The college experience is increasingly positioned to demonstrate its value as a worthwhile return on investment. Specific, definable activities, such as research experience, first-year experience, and experiential learning, are marketed as delivering precise skill sets in the form of an individual educational package. Through ethnography-based analysis, the contributors to this volume explore how these commodified'experiences'have turned students into consumers and given them the illusion that they are in control of their investment. They further reveal how the pressure to plan every move with a constant eye on a demonstrable return has supplanted traditional approaches to classroom education and profoundly altered the student experience.

The world of tertiary education has changed significantly in the past fifteen years. Developing countries have seen tremendous enrollment growth, especially in the private sector. Many nations are facing an exponentially rising demand as more young people graduate from high school as a result of the successful implementation of the Education for All agenda. The launch of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations in September 2015 has given renewed consideration to the importance of education for development and the urgency of putting in place viable financing strategies. Against this background this book explores the crucial role played by tertiary education towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It observes that tertiary education finds itself at a crossroad today, as national systems are pulled in several directions by a combination of factors—crisis factors, rupture factors, and stimulation factors—bringing about both opportunities and challenges. How these forces in the tertiary education ecosystem play out in each country will determine the new “perils” and “promises” that are likely to shape the contribution of tertiary education to economic and social development in the years to come.

Talent has been identified as the only differentiator for an organization's, nations'or any region's success in this uncertain, complex, competitive and global environment. Ulrich (2008) defined talent as the equation of 3Cs: Talent = Competence x Commitment x Contribution. Malaeb and Chanaron (2010, p. 2), noted “Competence means that employees have the skills and abilities today and in the future for required business results.... Commitment means that employees are involved and engaged... while Contribution means that employees find personal abundance at occupation...” While Ulrich (2008) observed that commitment focused on meaning and identity and other restraints that tap employee's heart. This book is unique in many ways, which makes it extraordinary. First, unlike other books that have examined issues of change facing the global economy no book has examined the issue of talent development from the perspective of special interest groups including management international students, women refugees, refugees, non‐governmental organizations, for profit, for benefit and nonprofit organizations. Thus, talent development world over has become one of the most important issues when it comes to developing human resources especially through education and training. The book presents pertinent research and practice on talent development management and argues that the term talent development broadly refers to management and development of high performing and high potential individuals in society required to carry out critical organizational and society roles aimed at improving human development. The contributors of the book chapters include individuals actively involved in research, teaching and practice in higher education and in business and industry. The chapters are based on empirical data, including review of relevant literature. The book also recognizes that talent development is more than just crisis management and includes best talent management practices, shared governance, meaningful reforms, strategic planning, transparency and accountability, social justice and respect for human life and the need to develop humane organizations and humane communities. The contributions take cognizance of the fact that talent development as a concept is facing fundamental changes in the global knowledge economy, and especially with political changes taking place world over. Contributors also take cognizance of the fact that one important source of change in society has been the accelerating speed of scientific and technological advancement driven by the power of the Internet hence the need to develop talent for the 21st century and beyond. The book is basically an academic book for use by undergraduates and graduate students at universities, for‐profit, for‐benefit, and non‐profit organizations, policy makers and formulators in ministries of Education; supra national organizations, foreign organizations multilateral organizations, non‐governmental organizations, community based organizations as well as development stakeholders, and community organizers.

This book makes the case for a critical turn in development thinking around universities and their contributions in making a more equal post-2015 world. It puts forward a normative approach based on human development and the capability approach, one which can gain a hearing from policy, scholarship, and practitioners dealing with practical issues of understanding policy, democratising research and knowledge, and fostering student learning - all key university functions.The book argues that such an approach can elucidate development debates drawing on local, national and international issues and examples to show why higher education matters for sustainable development goals both in educational and social terms. It advocates a new arena of engagement with universities as key sites of development and freedoms beyond human capital and challenges development omissions and gaps around university education. The book explores how the human development approach addresses the following core ideas: the meaning of well-being, the idea of agency, participation and democratic citizenship, how to address inequalities, the relation between local and global, and the idea of equitable partnerships.This book is addressed to researchers and postgraduate students in development studies, university education, the capability approach and human development community.

Recent years have seen the strengthening of a discourse that emphasises the virtues of markets, competition and private initiative, vis-à-vis the vices of public intervention in higher education. This volume presents a timely reflection about the effects this increasing marketization has been producing in many higher education systems worldwide. The various chapters of this volume analyse the impact of markets at the system level, with significant attention being devoted to the changes in modes of regulation, the strengthening of aspects such as privatization and inter-institutional competition in higher education systems, and the closer interaction between higher education and its economic environment. Several of the contributors devote attention as well to the implications of market forces for institutional change, notably regarding issues such as mission, organizational structure and governance and the way marketization is affecting the internal distribution of power and the definition of priorities. Finally, the volume includes several chapters focusing on the different markets of higher education, such as the academic labour market, undergraduate and postgraduate education, and research markets. Altogether these chapters provide important insights concerning the many national and institutional contexts in which the marketization of higher education has been taking place around the world.

Globalization, the information age, and the rise of the knowledge-based economy are significantly transforming the way we acquire, disseminate, and transform knowledge. And, as a result, knowledge production is becoming closer and more directly linked to economic competitiveness. This evolution is also putting new and urgent demands on academic institutions to adjust to the changing needs of society and economy. In particular, there is growing pressure on the institutions of higher education and research in developed economies to find and affirm their new role in the national innovation system. Their counterparts in developing economies need to define their role in supporting emerging structures of the innovation system. This book examines the role of universities and national research institutes in social and economic development processes. Featuring contributions that showcase initiatives and innovations from around the world, including China, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Western Europe, it offers timely insight that will be of interest to policymakers, university administrators, economic and social leaders, and researchers alike.