Ivory tower free download series#
Ivory tower free download download#

Contract research staff were under‐represented in the sample, most probably due to the transient nature of these people and the fact that they are therefore not as prominent in the web pages used for the final sample. There are three instances of under‐representation. The achieved survey sample was broadly representative of the academic population as a whole with respect to age, gender and seniority. This project formed part of the Nations and Regions Research Programme, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and co‐ordinated from the University of Edinburgh. The Guardian, 20 May ) and Hunt ( 2003 Hunt, T. The Guardian, 27 May ), Furedi ( 2003 Furedi, F. It’s not what you study but what you learn. See for example Bassnett ( 2003 Bassnett, S. Recent comments from the former Westminster education secretary Charles Clarke and former higher education minister Margaret Hodge in particular have stimulated a great deal of comment from academics writing in the media. , but see also notes 7 and 8 in this paper.ģ. Higher Education Quarterly, 57(1): 67– 93. The survival of the democratic intellect: academic values in Scotland and England. This issue is examined in some detail in Paterson, 2003 Paterson, L. While the nature of our sample (see below) means that we cannot draw conclusions about individual institutions, we can explore the potential influence of different types of institution. This does not mean that the institutional type or culture within which these individuals work is not relevant. , although as these authors usefully point out, the local and global roles of universities should not necessarily be seen as distinct.Ģ. In The virtual university? Knowledge, markets, and management, Edited by: Robins, K. “ Afterword: what will be the global identity of the university?”. For an approach which contrasts with our own through examining the global status of universities, see Robins and Webster, 2002 Robins, K. We conclude that academics exhibit a strong commitment to engagement and interaction with their communities both in principle and practice that such interaction often takes place at a variety of geographical levels and that it is often accomplished under less than propitious circumstances.ġ.

Ivory tower free download series#

Our findings are based on a postal questionnaire administered to a sample of academics, and a series of follow‐up interviews with a smaller sub‐sample of respondents. This issue is of great importance at a time when higher education has become a more obvious object of political scrutiny, both in terms of its use of public funds and its more general social and economic purpose. We explore interaction with the community which takes a broadly ‘civic’ form, and that which is of more specifically economic relevance. It considers whether academic values and practice tend toward a ‘detached’ or ‘universalist’ perspective in which location is largely redundant and any perceived ‘community’ has a global character, or whether values and practice in fact indicate a significant perhaps substantial degree of community engagement at a local, regional or national level.

Ivory tower free download download#

Students should be encouraged to read both books and form their own opinion.)Īs an additional incentive to download the book, be advised that the text includes many a reference to the sayings and doings of Rashid Khalidi, the Palestinian-American professor who is much in the news for his long-standing friendship with Barack Obama.This paper examines the degree and nature of universities’ interaction with their communities from the perspectives of individual academics. (It should definitely be in the syllabus of any course that assigns Zachary Lockman’s Contending Visions of the Middle East, where Ivory Towers is critiqued over half a dozen pages. If you are a faculty member, it’s now easy to include the book in your next syllabus. If you are in a Middle East course, send the link to your classmates and ask your professor to discuss the book in class. If you are a student or know a student, share the link. The Institute and I hope that by making it freely available, Ivory Towers on Sand will live yet another life, especially among today’s university and college students. The book appeared six weeks after 9/11 ( here’s the New York Times report of its publication), and had a much greater impact than I imagined it would when I wrote it. I’m pleased to announce that as of this morning, and for the first time, the entire book is available from the Institute as a free download (pdf). Seven years ago this week, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy published my book Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America.