The University of the Future

This book has been written to help university staff, students and potential student and their parents understand the stress and strains the university system is under today and how this might play out in the future.

Universities are under considerable pressure to change, perhaps under more pressure than at any time since they reinvented themselves in the early 1800s. Universities are being criticised for not producing adequately work-ready graduates. Universities are being criticised for the current market orientation which is reflected in the fees they charge and the high salaries paid to Vice Chancellors, Deans and others holding high office. Universities are being criticised for their bureaucracy which has led to the coining of the expression managerialism. They have been criticised for their intense focus on research which has sometimes been said to have been at the cost to their mandate to educate.

However, what is actually happening within universities and what is likely to happen in the future is much more nuanced than most of the criticism which is levelled that them. Universities are a reflection of society and thus they are always a work-in-progress, continually in need of reinventing themselves.

This book, The University of the Future is a collection of views from 28 academics and other interested parties from different parts of the world. It considers how universities developed, what we expect of them and how they might be improved in the future.