Unit name | The University in Western Europe and the USA since 1800 (Level I Special Field) |
---|---|
Unit code | HIST26028 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Wei |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Universities face an uncertain future. In response to competing demands, they claim that they can do everything and please everyone. The current financial crisis, however, is forcing them to make tough choices and they cannot please everyone. As different interest groups fight over reduced funding, the past is often invoked, revealing a superficial grasp of why universities have become what they are today; this at least we can put right.
We will explore the history of universities in Western Europe and North America since 1800. Key themes will include: different conceptions of the nature and purpose of universities; processes by which different types of university have been established; governance and internal power relations; who goes to university (race, class and gender); pedagogy and the student experience; funding systems; the political, social and economic roles of universities from local, national and transnational perspectives; representations in films, television programmes, and novels.
Aims:
By the end of the unit students should have:
1 x 2 hour exam
R. Barnett, The Idea of Higher Education (Buckingham, 1990).
Wilhelm von Humboldt, ‘On the spirit and the organisational framework of intellectual organisations in Berlin’ in Minerva at http://www.springerlink.com/content/r2l315x804607m1r/fulltext.pdf
C. Kerr, The Uses of the University (Cambridge, Mass., 1963).
J.H. Newman, The Idea of a University (reprinted New Haven, 1996).
W. Rüegg, (ed.) A History of the University in Europe, vol. III: Universities in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (1800-1945) (Cambridge, 2004).
L.R. Veysey, The Emergence of the American University (Chicago, 1965).