Publisher Description

At a time of great economic uncertainty, The Business of Higher Education looks at the pros and cons of colleges and universities taking a more business-like approach to fulfilling their missions. How can colleges and universities navigate their way between shrinking commitments and the increasing expectations of their students? Does the answer lie in taking a more business-like approach? This extraordinary resource considers the costs and benefits to both public and private institutions and to society when academe embraces business models for improving cost-efficiency, marketing, hiring practices, and customer service. Bringing together a diverse team of contributors from the academic and business worlds, The Business of Higher Education offers 35 essays in three volumes. The first volume explores issues of leadership and culture, the second focuses on management and fiscal strategies, and the third volume takes up issues of marketing and consumer interests. Throughout, the work balances the contrasting perspectives of those within the academy and those outside of it, as it considers whether higher education and the public interest are ultimately helped or harmed by the application of business methods to essential academic functions.

Originally published in 1995, The Business of Higher Education focuses on innovation in student financial services. It looks at the area of banking function as a tool for colleges and universities, and how this can be used to meet the market demand for new services. It also addresses how this can be used to balance the financial aid budget. The book documents just how much each colleges and universities have changed over the last decade and how each has changed given that market forces increasingly shape institutional aspirations.

This book tackles the role of universities in driving economic growth. Their role as providers of talent, technology and new ideas is considered in the light of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. A series of expert authors consider success, opportunity and how national frameworks can be fine-tuned to deliver business success.

Higher Education: A Critical Business is a bold statement about higher education in the modern age. It continues Ronald Barnett's thinking of his earlier books but offers a completely new set of ideas in a challenging but engaging argument. A defining concept of the Western university is that of critical thinking, but that idea is completely inadequate for the changing and unknowable world facing graduates. Instead, we have to displace the idea of critical thinking with the much broader idea of critical being. In this idea, students reflect critically on knowledge but they also develop their powers of critical self-reflection and critical action. This critique is transformatory. An education for critical being calls for a new approach to the process of higher education. It also has implications for the organization and management of universities, and for the relationship of universities to the wider worlds of work, professionalism and intellectual life. "Barnett reviews what the academy customarily means when it talks about critical thought, explains why that talk is so often shallow and pessimistic, and holds up for contemplation a positive conception of a 'very wide self' formed through education.... He breathes completely new life into the dead notion of academic as intellectual" - Professor Sheldon Rothblatt, University of California, Berkeley and Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Anyone interested in understanding how we might develop universities and higher education for the modern world should read this important book.

The new edition of Business Practices in Higher Education helps readers understand the true nature of higher education and appreciate how the academy effectively incorporates business practices into everyday work lives. The authors apply business concepts and models and explain how they can be leveraged to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of higher education institutions. Useful examples from a wide range of institutions—including small private college, large public universities, and community colleges—address macro-level higher education and student population issues, while also addressing micro-level issues for individual institutions or students. Business practices are critical to the academic, student affairs, and administrative sides of higher education. This book offers aspiring higher education and student affairs professionals an understanding of the fundamental business practices of colleges and universities. New in this edition: Updated coverage of current practice and research New chapters on accounting, strategic planning, and fundraising End-of-chapter questions for discussion

The future of higher education depends on how managers respond to the challenge of rising costs, changing labour markets and new technologies. More people will follow some form of education programme in the next couple of decades than did previously in all of human history. Most of the capacity to accommodate this demand will be created in the global online environment. The shift in what is currently ‘valued’ in higher education (towards a knowledge-based economy) is driving the need for new business models. As the pace of change accelerates, education providers need to redefine their strategy for sustainable success. This volume presents the thinking of leading higher education researchers and academics from IDRAC Business School and partner universities regarding the new stakeholders in higher education systems and structures, and the kinds of business models which are needed in order to offer a sustainable value proposition. The articles gathered together here provide an insight into changes taking place in higher education institutions (HEIs) and the responses to such change. They underscore the belief that pervasive technology and ubiquitous Internet access have transformed higher education, putting pressure on HEIs to review their traditional approach in order to deliver anywhere, any ware, and any time. HEIs have a critical role to play in society; the onus is on managers to integrate a philosophy of employability, to support small and medium-sized enterprises to be smarter, and to be more innovative as communities of learning. Both the popular press and academics have initiated debate around the changes taking place and the effectiveness of current business models in higher education. The weaknesses of the current system have been exposed and discussed at length; the general consensus is that a rupture with the past is needed. Now is the time for systemic change and development to prepare learners for the uncharted and uncertain world ahead.

Everybody's Business is a succinct analysis of the factors that led to the founding of American business schools and why they are the way they are. Mitroff, Alpaslan, and O'Connor consider why current business schools do not give students the knowledge and the tools they need to deal with today's complex, messy problems and systems.