Palace of Ashes: China and the Decline of American Higher Education

America is in danger of losing its last great export—higher education.

In addition to possessing the world’s largest economies, China and the United States have extensive higher education systems comparable in size. By juxtaposing their long and distinctive educational traditions, Palace of Ashes offers compelling evidence that American colleges and universities are quickly falling behind in measures such as scholarly output and the granting of doctoral degrees in STEM fields. China, in contrast, has massed formidable economic power in support of its universities in an attempt to create the best educational system in the world.

Palace of Ashes argues that the overall quality of U.S. institutions of higher learning has declined over the last three decades. Mark S. Ferrara places that decline in a broad historical context to illustrate how the forces of globalization are helping rapidly developing Asian nations—particularly China—transform their major universities into serious contenders for the world’s students, faculty, and resources.

Ferrara finds that American institutions have been harmed by many factors, including chronic state and federal defunding, unsustainable tuition growth, the adoption of corporate governance models, adjunctification, and the overall decline of humanities education relative to job-related training. Ferrara concludes with several key recommendations to help U.S. universities counter these trends and restore the palace of American higher learning.

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Palace of Ashes: China and the Decline of American Higher Education

America is in danger of losing its last great export—higher education.

In addition to possessing the world’s largest economies, China and the United States have extensive higher education systems comparable in size. By juxtaposing their long and distinctive educational traditions, Palace of Ashes offers compelling evidence that American colleges and universities are quickly falling behind in measures such as scholarly output and the granting of doctoral degrees in STEM fields. China, in contrast, has massed formidable economic power in support of its universities in an attempt to create the best educational system in the world.

Palace of Ashes argues that the overall quality of U.S. institutions of higher learning has declined over the last three decades. Mark S. Ferrara places that decline in a broad historical context to illustrate how the forces of globalization are helping rapidly developing Asian nations—particularly China—transform their major universities into serious contenders for the world’s students, faculty, and resources.

Ferrara finds that American institutions have been harmed by many factors, including chronic state and federal defunding, unsustainable tuition growth, the adoption of corporate governance models, adjunctification, and the overall decline of humanities education relative to job-related training. Ferrara concludes with several key recommendations to help U.S. universities counter these trends and restore the palace of American higher learning.

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Palace of Ashes: China and the Decline of American Higher Education

Palace of Ashes: China and the Decline of American Higher Education

by Mark S. Ferrara
Palace of Ashes: China and the Decline of American Higher Education

Palace of Ashes: China and the Decline of American Higher Education

by Mark S. Ferrara

eBook

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Overview

America is in danger of losing its last great export—higher education.

In addition to possessing the world’s largest economies, China and the United States have extensive higher education systems comparable in size. By juxtaposing their long and distinctive educational traditions, Palace of Ashes offers compelling evidence that American colleges and universities are quickly falling behind in measures such as scholarly output and the granting of doctoral degrees in STEM fields. China, in contrast, has massed formidable economic power in support of its universities in an attempt to create the best educational system in the world.

Palace of Ashes argues that the overall quality of U.S. institutions of higher learning has declined over the last three decades. Mark S. Ferrara places that decline in a broad historical context to illustrate how the forces of globalization are helping rapidly developing Asian nations—particularly China—transform their major universities into serious contenders for the world’s students, faculty, and resources.

Ferrara finds that American institutions have been harmed by many factors, including chronic state and federal defunding, unsustainable tuition growth, the adoption of corporate governance models, adjunctification, and the overall decline of humanities education relative to job-related training. Ferrara concludes with several key recommendations to help U.S. universities counter these trends and restore the palace of American higher learning.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781421418001
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 11/30/2015
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 216
File size: 3 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Mark S. Ferrara is an associate professor of English at the State University of New York. He is the author of Barack Obama and the Rhetoric of Hope and the coeditor of Between Noble and Humble: Cao Xueqin and the Dream of the Red Chamber.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. From Mandarins to Mao Zedong
2. A Shared Humanistic Heritage
3. The Chinese Moment
4. Crisis in the American Academy
5. Global Convergence and Competition
6. Pricing the Paradigm Shift
Afterword
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Robert A. Rhoads

Interesting, provocative, and original. Ferrara adopts a progressive position to critique neoliberal trends while also defending the humanities and liberal learning more generally.

From the Publisher

Interesting, provocative, and original. Ferrara adopts a progressive position to critique neoliberal trends while also defending the humanities and liberal learning more generally.
—Robert A. Rhoads, University of California–Los Angeles, coauthor of China's Rising Research Universities: A New Era of Global Ambition

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