Higher education in the United States and elsewhere is being forced to respond to several disparate social and economic pressures: social trust and connectedness is down, empathy across citizens is deteriorating, political awareness and participation are low, and job prospects and financial security are sobering for many citizens, even the college educated. The response to these pressures is not to double down on one mission of higher education, namely job creation. Instead, higher education marching into the next decades requires an integrative approach that promotes job creation, skill development, citizen cultivation, and knowledge dissemination-all oriented towards strengthening communities and providing opportunity for all citizens to pursue the good life. Across eight chapters, this book provides historical and theoretical analyses of the role of higher education in society across these four missions, as well as applied mini and extended case examples demonstrating how the four missions can be successfully integrated. The extended cases consist of one pedagogy example, a teaching initiative labeled "joined up service learning" that represents deep partnership between the university and community, and an institutional design case of an academic research center and its work conducted in partnership with community stakeholders. Recommendations are advanced for an integrated approach to performance funding of higher education institutions, tenure and promotion expectations for faculty, and graduation requirements for students, among others.

Auteur
Thomas A. Bryer is associate professor in the School of Public Administration and director of the Center for Public and Nonprofit Management at the University of Central Florida.

Contenu

Chapter 1: Higher Education Narratives and the Good Life
Chapter 2: Civic Decline, Lust for Growth, and Weak Community
Chapter 3: Higher Education Reforms
Chapter 4: SEE DEMOS: Student Empowered Education; Democratizing Education for Members of Society
Chapter 5: Example of Pedagogy: Joined up Service Learning
Chapter 6: Example of Institutional Design: Sustained Partnerships with Community
Chapter 7: A New Model for Higher Education: A Partner in Building Strong, Social, Economic, and Democratic Communities
Chapter 8: Band of Brothers