The Uses of the University: Fourth Edition - Softcover

Kerr, Clark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674931726 ISBN 13: 9780674931725

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1995

Synopsis

America's university president extraordinaire adds a new chapter and preface to The Uses of the University, probably the most important book on the modern university ever written. This summa on higher education brings the research university into the new century.

The multiversity that Clark Kerr so presciently discovered now finds itself in an age of apprehension with few certainties. Leaders of institutions of higher learning can be either hedgehogs or foxes in the new age. Kerr gives five general points of advice on what kinds of attitudes universities should adopt. He then gives a blueprint for action for foxes, suggesting that a few hedgehogs need to be around to protect university autonomy and the public weal.

About this title

About the Author:

Clark Kerr is President Emeritus and former Chancellor and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the former Chair of the Carnegie Commission (and later Council) on Higher Education, and the former Chair and Director of the National Commission on Strengthening Presidential Leadership under the auspices of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

Review:

No book ever written has provided such a penetrating description of the modern research university or offered such insightful comments on its special tensions and problems. With this new edition, Clark Kerr adds to the original text with commentary on the evolution of our universities during the thirty years since the work first appeared and an analysis of the challenges that will arise in the next decade or two. Anyone wishing to understand the American research university--past, present, and future--must begin with a careful reading of this book. (Derek Bok, President, Emeritus, Harvard University)

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0674931726
• ISBN 13: 9780674931725
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 256