ABSTRACT

This book explores the nature of public universities and higher education reforms in emerging economies, with a focus on India, South Africa and Brazil. Drawing on context-based case studies, the essays in the volume highlight the state of public universities amongst the developing world with their shared colonial past and social, caste and race inequalities. Based on comparative and multidisciplinary studies, the book provides a critical account of the policy reforms and changes on account of globalization and markets in higher education in public universities of the Global South regions. 

The chapters also compare methodological approaches to university reform and restructuring of public universities and higher education systems in USA, Australia, the European Union and India, and examine the California model, the Bologna process, the Melbourne model, the University of Delhi reforms, and engage critically with the New Public Management inspired reform policies. The book further lays the groundwork for understanding 'massification' in a contextual way, and the possibilities for expansion of scale of mass higher education through public provision.  

With its empirical findings and social theory analyses by global experts, the volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of education, higher education, sociology and social anthropology, development studies, public policy and administration, politics, political economy, and Global South studies. It will also be useful to educationists, policymakers and civil society organizations.

chapter |30 pages

Introduction

Reclaiming public universities: Comparative reflections for reforms

part I|94 pages

Globalization and reforms in local arenas

chapter 1|20 pages

Globalization in the United States

The case of California

chapter 2|17 pages

Academic challenges and solutions in higher education

An Australian perspective

chapter 3|22 pages

Understanding the European higher education area

The impact of the Bologna Process

chapter 4|15 pages

Crisis and reforms in higher education in India

Some conceptual and methodological reflections

chapter 5|18 pages

Decolonization of higher education

Opportunities and challenges of reclaiming the public university in the South African context

part II|128 pages

The Indian public university

chapter 6|16 pages

Knowledge, power, and autonomy

Policy contestations in Indian public universities

chapter 7|21 pages

The Indian Institutes of Technology

A sociology of knowledge perspective

chapter 8|18 pages

Managing a university in transition

Opportunities and challenges

chapter 9|22 pages

Quest for excellence in Indian higher education

Negotiating the trade-off between autonomy and accountability

chapter 10|23 pages

Recovering the ‘public voice'

Defining quality in higher education in India 1

part III|84 pages

Persisting inequalities

chapter 14|16 pages

What is at stake when reforming educational pathways?

Theoretical reflections from South Africa

chapter 15|24 pages

Radical shifts in undergraduate education in India

Concerns and challenges

chapter |12 pages

Conclusion

Reclaiming the ‘public': reflections from reforms and universities