On the recent list of the Top 200 Universities in the World, the US is the dominant nation, with 49 institutions on the list, ahead of the UK with 30 institutions, the Netherlands with twelve, Germany with 11, Canada, Australia, and Japan with 8 each, China with 7, and France, Sweden and Hong Kong with 5 each.
Quite obviously, the performance of our nation’s top universities may not be indicative of the performance of all of our many types of postsecondary institutions. But, granting that, it is hard to think of anything that we do better as a nation, except perhaps arms production.
So, those who are arguing for the need to “re-make” or to “radically transform” higher education should be required to demonstrate that actual problems exist that require the “solutions” that they are offering—at potentially great profit to their corporations and their sharegolders.
They should have to demonstrate that their “reforms” and “innovations” advance the public interest by enhancing public higher education—rather than just advancing their corporate interests.
Reblogged this on Ohio Higher Ed.
It appears that “re-making” American H.E. is code for the “commodification” of education, the un-bundling of the work of the professoriate and the international trading of the “re-made” product for huge corporate profits.