University in Crisis: From the Middle Ages to the University of Excellence

As is obvious to the casual newspaper reader, the debt-saddled student, the increasingly precarious university teaching force, the reactionary politician, and the budget-constrained administrator, the entire system of higher education is in crisis. This book brings necessary clarity to contentious debates about the state and future of the university by reconstructing the institution?s history around the theme of crisis.

Since its origins in medieval Bologna, the university has been a site w...