Higher Education Transformation: Some Trends in California and Asia

Abstract

The social transformations rippling throughout education systems worldwide impact both basic and higher education. In general, higher education is being asked to provide graduates with skills and abilities commensurate with the workforce demands of rapidly changing economies. Frequently articulated critiques of higher education argue that its institutions have been elitist, dominated by faculties resistant to change, lacking in social relevance, and—as institutions—absorbing an increasing (and perhaps unwarranted) amount of societal resources. Where higher education has largely been a state function, conservative bureaucracies are viewed as impediments to necessary development and change. Virtually everywhere, voices are raised to demand necessary reforms yet, in spite of these apparently common challenges, it remains true that policy-related education issues are framed by and “spoken through” the particularities of distinct cultures and histories. For those of us seeking to understand and document appeals for higher education reform, the task is always to appreciate the distinctiveness of local/national articulations of these issues while also recognizing the structural commonalities that link global higher education issues. As one of my colleagues recently stated, “[A]ll globalization is local.”