New Languages and Landscapes of Higher Education

The landscapes of higher education have been changing rapidly, with enormous growths in participation rates in many countries across the world, and major developments and changes within institutions. But the languages that we need to conceptualise and understand these changes have not been keeping pace.

The central argument in this book is that new ways of thinking about higher education, the new languages of its title, are needed to understand the role of universities and colleges in contemporary society and culture and the global economy, new landscapes. Over-reliance on existing conceptualisations of higher education, has made it difficult to understand fully the nature of 21st-century higher education. It may also have encouraged a view that there is no alternative to the development of more marketized forms of higher education. The analysis offered suggests that the future is much more open.

It argues that familiar categories, normally accepted as givens, are actually more fluid. 'Systems' of higher education, whether expressed through direct public funding or through regulatory regimes, are being eroded. 'Institutions', often assumed to be to be given enhanced agency by more corporate forms of management and governance), are no longer powerful actors, if they ever were. 'Research', often corralled by assessment and management systems, is becoming more diffuse and distributed. 'Learning', supposedly more focused on skill outcomes and employability, retains a more broadly educative function. The 'publicness' of higher education has not disappeared as public funding has diminished, but taken on new forms.

With contributions from leading figures, drawn from a wide range of countries, this book provides an authoritative analysis of many of the major issues which dominate discussion with respect to policy, practice and research in the field of higher education, and it can expect to become a major source book for all who are interested in the development of higher education in the 21st Century.

Peter Scott, Professor of Higher Education Studies, UCL Institute of Education,Jim Gallacher, Emeritus Professor of Lifelong Learning, Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning, Glasgow Caledonian University,Gareth Parry, Professor of Education and Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, School of Education, University of Sheffield

Peter Scott is Professor of Higher Education Studies at the UCL Institute of Education. Formerly he was Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University and Professor of Education at the University of Leeds. He was also for 16 years Editor of The Times Higher Education Supplement. His major research interest are the development of mass higher education, particularly in its wider social setting, new patterns of knowledge production and the governance and management of universities. He is Treasurer of the Academia Europaea and also chair of its behavioural sciences section.



Jim Gallacher is Emeritus Professor of Lifelong Learning in Glasgow Caledonian University, and was Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning 1999-2008. He is also Honorary Professor in the University of Stirling and the University of the Highlands and Islands. He was an adviser to the Scottish parliament for their Inquiry into Lifelong Learning and a Board member of the Scottish Funding Council for Further and Higher Education (SFC) (2005-10). Recent and current research interests include widening access to further and higher education; links between further and higher education; work related higher education; and credit and qualifications frameworks. He has managed a wide range of research projects on these topics, and published numerous books, book chapters, journal articles and research reports from his research.


Gareth Parry is Professor of Education and Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Sheffield, and Programme Leader, ESRC Centre for Global Higher Education. He researches system change and policy reform in higher education, nationally and internationally. He has led major research projects funded by the research councils, government departments and national agencies on aspects of organisation and participation in tertiary education. He was a research consultant to the Dearing inquiry into higher education (1996-97) and the Foster review of further education colleges (2004-05). His current work is focused on three areas: new languages and landscapes for higher education; college systems in cross-national perspective; policy inquiry processes in tertiary education