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Webinar: U.S. Higher Education Before and After Coronavirus Presented by Universities: Past, Present, and Future
Special Online Seminar!
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U.S. Higher Education Before and After Coronavirus: Will American Universities Remain Strong? Will They Meet the Challenges They Face?
Talk by Steven Brint, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at the University of California, Riverside
Presented by Universities: Past, Present, and Future
The lecture details the pre-coronavirus trajectory of American universities, focusing on the intersection of three “logics of development”: (1) the growth of disciplinary (and interdisciplinary) knowledge resulting from productivity increases tied to the system of academic professionalism; (2) market orientations that led to expanding curricula and powerful partnerships for scientific and technological innovation, and (3) the goals and practices of social inclusion. Conflicts arose during the period: academic entrepreneurs sometimes flouted their campus responsibilities and departments sometimes faced public backlash over the hiring of scholars with nontraditional research agendas. Nevertheless, accommodation between the three logics was the norm, and it created a new dynamism.
The looming question is how U.S. colleges and universities will fare in the aftermath of the coronavirus. The talk concludes by discussing likely changes in the institutional landscape and the kinds of federal response that would allow for a pragmatically optimistic vision for the future.