Universities have stood for 900 years in Western culture with most of their institutional structures essentially unchanged. They still serve three basic functions: educating the faculty, teaching students and gathering knowledge. Funding is, and always has been, the main difficulty within universities and most of the problems critics point to can be traced to a lack of it—universities, it seems, are always in crisis. The authors demonstrate that universities are in fact doing well. They generate an immense amount of research and drive the development of new technologies. On the whole, faculty members teach pretty well and students are in fact learning (at least something), and the challenges of inadequate funding are faced with adequate success.

James D. Hardy, Jr., is a professor of history at Louisiana State University and has written numerous books on baseball. He lives in Baton Rouge.

Ann Martin teaches English at Louisiana State University and has collected several teaching awards. She lives in Clinton, Louisiana.

James D. Hardy, Jr. and Ann Martin

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 216
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6520-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2910-0
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Preface 1
1 The Legacy of the Medieval University 7
2 The Americanization of the University Experience 23
3 Student Environments 47
4 Courses and Curriculum 70
5 MOOCs: Technology and Money 90
6 SCOCs, Universities, Technology and Money 111
7 For- Profit Universities: The American Dream Redefined 134
8 The Limitations of Reform 155
Bibliographical Essay 175
Chapter Notes 185
Index 205

• “Unreservedly recommended”—Midwest Book Review