scholarly journals Comparative higher education studies: The perspective from the policy sciences

1996 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo Goedegebuure ◽  
Frans Van Vught
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Policy Sciences ◽  
Comparative Higher Education

Comparative Higher Education: Burma and Thailand

1993 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-19
Author(s):  
Sunait Chutintaranond ◽  
Pracob Cooperat
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Comparative Higher Education

Towards a methodology discourse in comparative higher education

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Kosmützky ◽  
Terhi Nokkala
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Comparative Higher Education

The socially responsible European university: a challenging project

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Barnett ◽  
Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Culture War ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Comparative Higher Education ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
European University

Purpose This paper aims to propose a thesis about the historical evolution of the relationship of the European University in relation to the idea of social responsibility. Design/methodology/approach This paper is philosophical, conceptual and theoretical and in proffering a bold thesis, has an argumentative character appropriate to that style. Findings Three stages can be identified over the past 200 years in the relationship between the university and the matter of social responsibility, being successively tacit, weak and now hybrid. In the present stage, new spaces are opening for the university to transcend social responsibility, moving to a worldly and earthly responsibility. However, this new stage is having to contend against the university in an age of cognitive capitalism. As such, a large but hitherto unnoticed culture war is present, the outcome of which is unclear. Research limitations/implications The scholarship informing this paper is wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary (history, social theory, philosophy, critical higher education studies, literature on the idea of the university, comparative higher education, ethics and sociology of knowledge), as it has to be in sustaining the large thesis being contended for, and it has broad hinterlands, which can only lightly be intimated. Practical implications The key implication is that the idea of social responsibility is currently being construed too narrowly and that, therefore, universities – in developing their corporate strategies and missions – should be more ambitious and set their responsibility goals against horizons that go well beyond the social realm. Originality/value The thesis developed here is original in offering a three-stage theory of a 200-year evolution of the socially responsible European university. A new stage of an Earthly responsibility is glimpsed but it is having to contend with a continuing performative university, so leading to a hidden culture war and such that the future of university social responsibility is in doubt.

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