Higher Education and the Nation-State: Global Pressures on Educational Institutions (original) (raw)
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The University and the State. A Study into Global Transformations
Frankfurt and New York: Peter Lang, ISBN: 3-631-54977-6, 2006
This book argues that the current renegotiation of the postwar social contract concerning the welfare state in Europe is being accompanied by the renegotiation of a smaller-scale modern social pact between the university and the nation-state. Current transformations to the state under the pressures of globalization will not leave the university unaffected, and consequently it is useful to discuss the university and its future in the context of the state. In the new global order, against the odds, universities are striving to maintain their pivotal role in society. Their role as engines of economic growth and contributors to economic competitiveness between increasingly knowledge-driven economies is being widely acknowledged. But it is a radical reformulation of their traditional social roles. The main reasons for current transformations of the university include globalization pressures on nation-states and their public services, the end of the «Golden age» of the Keynesian welfare state, and the emergence of knowledge-based societies and knowledge-driven economies. Therefore the university can no longer be discussed solely in traditional, relatively self-contained disciplinary contexts. Here the university is seen from a variety of perspectives and through the lens of a wide range of disciplines (mainly educational sciences, political economy, sociology, political sciences, and philosophy). Contents Contents: The University in a Global Age - The University Between the State and the Market - The Idea of the University Revisited (the German Context) - The University and the Nation-State: the Impact of Global Pressures - The University and the Welfare State - Globalization, the Welfare State, and the Future of Democracy - The University and the New European Educational and Research Policies.
The Nation-State, Globalisation and the Modern Institution of the University
Theoria. A Journal of Social and Political Theory, No. 96, December 2000, pp. 74-99, 2000
Thinking about the ‘identity crisis’ of the modern institution of the university, I was wondering about the following most general questions: does the current passage to late modernity and to the information age, the decline of the role of the nation-state and the increasing power of processes of globalisation mean the inevitability of the radical reformulation of the social mission and tasks of the institution of the university? Does the university (in North America and Central Europe alike) come through the transitory crisis of public trust and of its founding values or through the dramatic crisis of its own identity in a radically new global order? Is it so that in the face of globalisation and its social practices the process of the ‘corporatization’ of the university and the account of its activities in terms of business rather than education are irresistible? Is the response to the decreasing public trust in and decreasing financial support of higher education generally on the part of the state to be found in new ideas (by reformulating once again the philosophical foundations of the modern university) or in its new organisation (by following the explicit recommendations provided by such supranational organisations as the OECD, the World Bank, or UNESCO)? Surprisingly enough, these questions are of equal significance to North America and to a Central and Eastern Europe experiencing vast social and economic transformation. In both parts of the world the most common reflection upon the future functioning of higher education is the following: ‘things will never be the same’.
Brussels: European Commission, 2002
The university in its modern form (invented 200 years ago by German Idealists and Romantics for the University of Berlin) has traditionally been in very close relations with the state and in relatively distant relations with the market. Now, as the state/market relations get changed with the advent of globalization, the university is unexpectedly located in a different landscape in which the state (or "government" in American tradition) is becoming - generally, with notable exceptions - weaker and the market is becoming stronger. The university, as traditionally a very important part of the public sector, comes under public scrutiny and its social and cultural missions get increasingly challenged. There is a significant difference between the positions taken with respect to higher education in general by supranational institutions and organizations (such as the World Bank, the IMF or the WTO), by the European Union, by governments of anglophone countries (mainly the US, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia), by governments of EU countries and, finally, by governments of EU accession countries. The influence of globalization forces differs significantly, and hence the impact of globalization on higher education is different in the above mentioned groups of countries. If we take into consideration the aspects of globalization with respect to higher education as described in more detail below (weakening of the nation state, questioning of the principles of the welfare state and the scope of social services it provides, and corporate culture/business attitude), the countries most strongly affected by it would be anglophone countries and EU accession and non-accession countries (as well as developing countries globally, and Latin America in particular). The countries least affected would be (Continental) EU countries. The difference lies perhaps in the role played in globalization: the strongest countries play the biggest role (US and countries close to it culturally, economically and linguistically), the weakest play the globalization game according to its rules. The countries of the European Union are in the middle, neither actively promoting globalization and using fully its opportunities (as the US), nor being strongly affected in their public sector, welfare state services etc as developing and EU accession countries. Higher education in the vast majority of developing countries in general (and in Latin America in particular) are provided with clear-cut policy recommendations in the landscape painted by globalization challenges: they include the gradual diminution of the public sector, the decomposition of the welfare state and its services as well as deregulation and privatization of those fields that in EU countries have traditionally belonged to the public sector (including higher education).
The University and the State in a Global Age: renegotiating the traditional social contract
European Educational Research Journal, Volume 4, Number 4, 2005
ECER Keynote 2005: This article is based on the Keynote Address to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Dublin, Ireland, 7-10 September 2005. It argues that we are facing the simultaneous renegotiation of the major postwar social contract (concerning the welfare state) in Europe and the renegotiation of a smaller-scale modern social pact: the pact between the university and the nation-state. It suggests that the current, and especially future, transformations of the university are not fully clear outside of the context of transformations to the state (and to the public sector) under global pressures. These pressures, both directly and indirectly, will not leave the university as an institution unaffected. Thus it is more useful today than ever before to discuss the future of the university in the context of the current transformations of the state. The study is divided into four sections: a brief introduction; a section on the university and the welfare state in Europe; a section on the university and the nation-state in Europe; and tentative conclusions. Part I. Introduction Renegotiating Two Social Contracts It paper argues for a strong thesis according to which we are facing the simultaneous renegotiation of the postwar social contract concerning the welfare state in Europe and the accompanying renegotiation of a smaller-scale, by comparison, modern social pact between the university and the nation-state. The renegotiation of the latter is not clear outside of the context of the former, as state-funded higher education formed one of the bedrocks of the European welfare system. It is the overall argument that current transformations to the state under the pressures of globalisation will not eventually leave the university unaffected, and consequently it is useful to discuss the university in the context of the current global transformations of the state. The institution of the university seems already to have found it legitimate and necessary to evolve together with radical transformations of its social setting. For in the new global order, against the odds, universities are striving to maintain their traditionally pivotal role in society. The role of universities as engines of economic growth, contributors to economic competitiveness and suppliers of well-trained workers for the new knowledge-driven economy is being widely acknowledged. But it is undoubtedly a radical reformulation of the traditional social roles of the university. The main reasons for these transformations of the university include the globalisation pressures on nation-states and its public services, the end of the 'Golden Age' of the Keynesian welfare state as we have known it, and the emergence of knowledge-based societies and knowledge-driven economies. More generally, the processes affecting the university today are not any different from those affecting the outside world; under both external pressures (like globalisation) and internal pressures (like changing demographics, the ageing of societies, maturation of welfare states, post-patriarchal family patterns and so forth), the processes in question are the individualisation (and recommodification) of our societies and the denationalisation (and desocialisation) of our economies. On top of that, we are beginning to feel at universities the full effects of the universalisation of higher education and the increasing commodification of research.
In: Maarten Simons, Michael Peters, and Marl Olssen (eds.), Re-Reading Education Policies: Studying the Policy Agenda for the 21st Century. Rotterdam/Boston/Taipei: Sense Publishers, pp. 195-215., 2009
The paper re-reads the complex and changing relationships between the university and the nation-state, and between national and supranational (EU-level) educational policies in Europe.' It is focusing on long-term consequences of globalisation -related presures on Europeanation-states with respecto national educational policies. It assesses the indirect impact of globalisation on European universities (via reformulating the role of the nation-state in the global economy), and a direct impact of Europeanisation — as a regional response to globalisation — on universities (via new EU-level discourse on the changing role of universities in knowledge economy). New educational policies promoted at the EU-level are viewed as delinking the nation-states and public universities. The paper re-reads the changing institution of the nation-state and its changing educational policies in the context of globalisation (sections 2 and 3) and in the specific, regional context of Europeanisation (section 4). It follows from presenting three major positions taken in the literature with respect to transformations of the nation-state under globalisation to presenting the process of de-linking traditional universities and the nation-state and its practical dimension at the EU level at which the role of universities is viewed from the perspective of larger social and economic agenda (called the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs). The major lesson to be drawn from this re-reading exercise is that there are complex and often contradictory relationships between globalisation as a process affecting the nation-states, changing national educational policies, and national and EU-level policies — which all transform the future role(s) of European universities. In sum, current challenges European universities face, and current policy solutions European governments suggest, are best viewed in the overall context of globalisation. National governments are responding to both globalisation and Europeanisation: policies and strategies they produce, instruments they use, and contradictions they cope with are best reread in this context.
Reforming Higher Education in Europe: From State Regulation Towards New Managerialism
2000
The present study describes the changes in the traditional European model of higher education, its successes as well as failures. The remarkable expansion of higher education in Europe during the postwar period was the result of a shared belief in the virtue of higher education per se. The traditional m odel of higher education assumes a stable relationship of fair exchange between the State and the academics: the State gives power to the academics in the belief that in this way it will receive in return the forms of knowledge, basic research, and advanced education that will be of most value to itself.
2022
In this essay, we take up the call of this review symposium to explore how the emergence of (new) nationalisms affects the university's status as a "global institution." We challenge the binary view that there is an inherent tension between the "national(ist)" and the "global" role of the university, whereby either its global character is reducing its national distinctiveness, or its nationalist appeal is challenging its global tendencies. This binary positioning, we argue, obscures the compound and context-specific understandings of both (new) nationalism and higher education. To make our case, we draw on our current comparative study on the impact of neonationalism on European higher education. We start with a discussion of neonationalism and how our conceptualization informs the debate on the "national" and "global" interaction. We then provide a snapshot of some of our empirical findings on the impact of neonationalism on higher education policy in Denmark and the United Kingdom to shed light on the complex ways they interact. Through this reflection, we hope to advance discussion on how to research the (re)nationalization of higher education in the context of an increasingly globalized system.