Knowledge Production and Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education

Knowledge Production and Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education PDF Author: Nico Cloete
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 1920677860
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
The dominant global discourse in higher education now focuses on world-class universities inevitably located predominantly in North America, Europe and, increasingly, East Asia. The rest of the world, including Africa, is left to play catch-up. But that discourse should focus rather on the tensions, even contradictions, between excellence and engagement with which all universities must grapple. Here the African experience has much to offer the high-participation and generously resourced systems of the so-called developed world. This book offers a critical review of that experience, and so makes a major contribution to our understanding of higher education.

Measuring Up in Higher Education

Measuring Up in Higher Education PDF Author: Anthony Welch
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811579210
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
This book examines the quality assessment movement in academic scholarship, as globalization prompts a search for global measures of university services and output. It gauges productivity in terms of universal publication metrics, and considers ranking and research productivity from a comparative perspective. The book considers the use of the “impact factor” as a gauge of publication value, noting that this less important in countries lacking central government appropriations to universities and to research. It argues that pressure to publish in certain journals, and to research topics of interest to English language readers, has been felt differentially in English-language systems, compared to others, but also that performance pressures fall more on younger, more juniour, contract staff, than on senior and tenured professors. It problematizes international comparisons of quality, and analyses the benefits of a zone of ideas and metrics in a common language – promoting international mobility, efficiency, collaboration - but also the costs which are rarely borne equally across countries, languages and cultures. The book provides a strong, evidence-based contribution to major debates in contemporary higher education reforms and the measurement of academic output.

The Future of Knowledge Production in the Academy

The Future of Knowledge Production in the Academy PDF Author: Merle Jacob
Publisher: Open University Press
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
The new knowledge society is characterized by a growing partnership between the university and industry. What are the implications for academics of such partnerships? What happens when the production of academic research is reorganized to reflect corporate structures and ambitions? What will future academic institutions be like? Does the nation state still have a role in determining how national science systems should be organized? This volume explores knowledge management in the university and beyond from the perspective of researchers working in academic-industry partnerships. Its re-examination of the role of the academy in knowledge production (and in society) is important reading for all academic researchers, for academic managers, and for students and scholars in science studies and sociology knowledge.

Universities and Strategic Knowledge Creation

Universities and Strategic Knowledge Creation PDF Author: Andrea Bonaccorsi
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1847206840
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 509

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Book Description
'. . . my opinion is that this book not only presents a wide and complete report of an extensive research effort, but also opens new directions for future research advancements in this field, that is very relevant both from theoretical considerations and policy-making implications.' Education Economics 'This book is the first work that brings together comprehensive evidence on research and education activities conducted in European universities. The volume is both timely (current discussion on the European Research Area is based on very poor quality comparative evidence) and important for scholars, practitioners, policymakers and students. It provides a critical assessment of the availability and use of inputoutput data and indicators to measure and map European higher education systems. At a time when universities are being asked to play an increasing number of roles, this book represents a foundation on which scholars and policymakers can start to develop the harmonised statistical infrastructure needed to evaluate, assess and support European universities in their changing roles.' Aldo Geuna, University of Sussex, UK Although the role of universities in the knowledge society is increasingly significant, there remains a severe lack of systematic quantitative evidence at the micro-level, with virtually all policy discussion based on country level statistics or case studies. This book redresses the balance by examining original data from universities in six European countries Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. The authors provide micro-based evidence on the evolution of the strategic profile of universities in terms of scientific research, contract research, education and the third mission. The result is a highly innovative book that combines detailed national case studies and comparative institutional analyses with state-of-the-art quantitative techniques. Applying for the first time new generations of nonparametric efficiency measures on a large scale, Universities and Strategic Knowledge Creation will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduate students in higher education, economics of science and technology, and innovation studies. It will also appeal to policymakers and administrators in governments, ministries and universities.

Changing Modes

Changing Modes PDF Author: Andre Kraak
Publisher: HSRC Press
ISBN: 9780796919601
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
This book examines the influence of an important body of international literature on the development of post-apartheid policies in higher education and training and in science and technology. The book also examines a related phenomenon, the so-called 'massification' and democratisation of higher education world-wde over the past two decades.

Knowledge production in higher education

Knowledge production in higher education PDF Author: Michelle Pace
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526160560
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Mindful of divisive labels in constructions of the ‘Middle East and North Africa’ (MENA) and of ‘Europe’, the editors and contributors of Knowledge production in higher education reflexively immerse themselves in an investigation of how knowledge about these regions is produced at higher educational establishments. Zooming in on mutual scholarship about ‘Europe’ and/or ‘the MENA’ opens up a wide range of possibilities for supplanting visions of so-called traditional Orientalists, to abandon the sets of magnifying glasses through which the Other is studied. For those interested in the decolonisation of academia and issues of positionality this is a must read. This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality education

The New Production of Knowledge

The New Production of Knowledge PDF Author: Michael Gibbons
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780803977945
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
In this provocative and broad-ranging work, the authors argue that the ways in which knowledge - scientific, social and cultural - is produced are undergoing fundamental changes at the end of the twentieth century. They claim that these changes mark a distinct shift into a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices and policies. Identifying features of the new mode of knowledge production - reflexivity, transdisciplinarity, heterogeneity - the authors show how these features connect with the changing role of knowledge in social relations. While the knowledge produced by research and development in science and technology is accorded central concern, the

Knowledge Production

Knowledge Production PDF Author: Bridget Somekh
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136025669
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
This collection from a highly impressive international group of educational researchers explores epistemological, methodological, and ethical-political issues in the production of knowledge about educational phenomena in contemporary society. The book is organized in two sections. The first focuses on how the enterprise of knowledge production is being influenced by global discourses of educational accountability, evidence-based practice and policy, and quality assessment. The second section features material that focuses more specifically on reconceiving both methodological matters and the kinds of knowledge that demand attention in this climate. The book is unique in bringing together chapters by scholars well-known internationally for their original contributions to educational theory and research practice. Many books in this area are no more than guides on how to do research or text books reiterating rather narrow frameworks of research paradigms, this book both breaks new ground and sets the tone for discussions about the future path of educational research in the coming years.

Research Universities in Africa

Research Universities in Africa PDF Author: Cloete, Nico
Publisher: African Minds
ISBN: 1928331874
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
From the early 2000s, a new discourse emerged, in Africa and the international donor community, that higher education was important for development in Africa. Within this ‘zeitgeist’ of converging interests, a range of agencies agreed that a different, collaborative approach to linking higher education to development was necessary. This led to the establishment of the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (Herana) to concentrate on research and advocacy about the possible role and contribution of universities to development in Africa. This book is the final publication to emerge from the Herana project. The project has also published more than 100 articles, chapters, reports, manuals and datasets, and many presentations have been delivered to share insights gained from the work done by Herana. Given its prolific dissemination, it seems reasonable to ask whether this fourth and final publication will offer the reader anything new. This book is certainly different from previous publications in several respects. First, it is the only book to include an analysis of eight African universities based on the full 15 years of empirical data collected by the project. Second, previous books and reports were published mid-project. This book has benefited from an extended gestation period allowing the authors and contributors to reflect on the project without the distractions associated with managing and participating in a large-scale project. For the first time, some of those who have been involved in Herana since its inception have had the opportunity to at least make an attempt to see part of the wood for the trees. Different does not necessarily mean new. An emphasis on the ‘newness’ of the data and perspectives presented in this book is important because it shows that it is more than a historical record of a donor-funded project. Rather, each chapter in this book brings, to a lesser or greater extent, something new to our understanding of universities, research and development in Africa.

Knowledge Production and Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education

Knowledge Production and Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education PDF Author: Cloete, Nico
Publisher: African Minds
ISBN: 1920677852
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Reviews "This volume brings together excellent scholarship and innovative policy discussion to demonstrate the essential role of higher education in the development of Africa and of the world at large. Based on deep knowledge of the university system in several African countries, this book will reshape the debate on development in the global information economy for years to come. It should be mandatory reading for academics, policy-makers and concerned citizens, in Africa and elsewhere.” Manuel Castells, Professor Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley, Laureate of the Holberg Prize 2012 and of the Balzan Prize 2013 "The dominant global discourse in higher education now focuses on ‘world-class’ universities – inevitably located predominantly in North America, Europe and, increasingly, East Asia. The rest of the world, including Africa, is left to play ‘catch-up’. But that discourse should focus rather on the tensions, even contradictions, between ‘excellence’ and ‘engagement’ with which all universities must grapple. Here the African experience has much to offer the high-participation and generously resourced systems of the so-called ‘developed’ world. This book offers a critical review of that experience, and so makes a major contribution to our understanding of higher education.” Sir Peter Scott, former editor of Times Higher Education and Professor of Higher Education Studies, University College London, Institute of Education