Higher Education and Society

Higher education and society are becoming increasingly intertwined. Both act as a transmitter of culture, yet many colleges and universities also ideally seek to create a more perfectible society and more enlightened, engaged citizens. When the connections between social structures and post-secondary education are closely entangled, the university’s aims can take on a contentious struggle for identity in a vexing web of competing external interests – especially in light of scarce economic resources, corporate pressures, technological questions, and globalizing trends. Higher Education and Society weighs the urgent question of how society and higher education influence each other. How the latter responds to that unsettled issue may well determine whether colleges and universities chart a more self-reflective path or one of rising deference to societal contingencies. This book is essential for all those who study and work in today’s colleges – and for all those who seek a better education for their children, the nation, and the world. It is especially recommended for courses in higher education and society, contemporary issues in higher education, the philosophy of higher education, academic issues in higher education, leadership in higher education, and globalization and higher education. The book is also useful for the preparation of faculty development programs in colleges and universities.

Joseph L. DeVitis has taught educational foundations and higher education at five universities in his 43-year academic career. Three of his books earned Choice journal awards from the American Library Association as outstanding books of the year, and two others won American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice awards. His latest volumes are Today’s College Students (Peter Lang, 2015) and School Reform Critics: The Struggle for Democratic Schooling (Peter Lang, 2014).
Pietro A. Sasso is Assistant Professor of Student Affairs and College Counseling at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. His most recent book is Today’s College Students (Peter Lang, 2015).