Book 25

Crisis of the University

by Peter Scott

Published February 1984

Originally published in 1984, The Crisis of the University looks at the way in which changes to intellectual life relate to the development of the different institutions that make up higher education. It examines the evolution of the liberal university that flourished in the 19th and early 20th centuries into the modern university that has grown up since 1945. It also looks at the more detailed experience of British higher education, with separate chapters on what the Robbins expansion meant for the universities and why it was thought necessary to construct an alternative in the shape of the polytechnics. Looking to the future, the book argues first that the present structure of British higher education needs reform and speculates on the future intellectual and social demands that may be made of higher education.


Book 26

Originally published in 1975, Strategies for Postsecondary Education looks at how postsecondary education absorbs an increasing proportion of education budgets in developed countries. The book analyses the inequalities in the American postsecondary education system and compares its performance with France and the United Kingdom. The traditional concept of higher education with its preference for the college sector is now being challenged by the notion of postsecondary education which embraces the community colleges and preparatory schools in the United States and the polytechnics in Great Britain. The book argues that the development of the non-collegiate sector, including further education outside a formal educational context, will extend the range of educational opportunity and make much better use of limited resources.