Re-Envisioning the Public Research University

Book excerpt: This volume explores the numerous and competing demands that face America’s public research universities and considers how institutions and their leaders can best navigate this challenge to ensure longevity, relevance, and success on the local, national, and global stage. Today’s public research universities have the unique challenge of responding to new societal pressures and policies, while remaining true to their core educational missions and values. Highlighting the multiple roles that universities must now fulfil – as institutions of higher learning, as research bodies, as institutions with global reputations, and as organizations that serve the public – the volume asks how they can best evolve in the rapidly changing education landscape. Tackling subjects such as faculty culture, the role of technology, financial sustainability, institutional identity, diversity, and organizational development, chapters identify innovative and transformative mechanisms for acclimatizing the public research university to current educational, academic, and societal needs. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in higher education, educational reform and policy, and the sociology of education more broadly.