Perspectives on
Higher Education
BOOK SERIES
It is widely recognised that higher education promotes social and economic development by
enhancing human and technical capabilities of society. Technical change and institutional change
are key components of development. Higher education plays an important role in facilitating these
changes by incorporating all of the various demographics of the population. In contemporary
lifelong-learning framework, higher education provides not only the high-level skills to address
labor market demand but also the training essential for skilled manpower. The higher education
expansion is a universal phenomenon in which there has been a great enhancement in the number
of students. The trend is more tangible in developing nations. With rise in the primary and
secondary education graduates, numerous aspire to keep on to acquire a degree. The real
incomes in developing countries have also been rising, resulting in higher education within the
reach of an increasing number of population segments.
Globalization has developed a powerful impact on the development of higher education and
imposes new challenges for the organization (standards, financing, regulations). Systems of
higher education tend to detach from the national models and adopt a more "global" orientation.
Private higher education institutions, once a trivial fragment of the higher education landscape,
have today occupied a substantial share of the market and have recognized themselves as
legitimate and viable stakeholders in the postsecondary education. Private Higher education is
expanding faster than the public sector. The growth of private sector incorporates the variety of
institutions and offerings the sector provides. Private higher education varies considerably in
forms, in status and in terms of reference for legislation.
The proliferation of the public or private institutions or both reflects mixed outcomes with regard to
accomplishment of increasing equity in terms of access to higher education. Enhancement in
access does not always address the equity issue. The issues of quality, governance and financing
present a diversified and heterogeneous landscape of tertiary education across nations.
The 'Perspectives on Higher Education' series aims to address all these issues in global context
and in comparative fashion to comprehend the various relevant perspectives of higher education
through contributions of leading scholars, planners and administrators. The editorial board of this
series welcomes proposals from leading academicians from different countries to publish edited
books on relevant areas of higher education, which could contribute to the knowledge and
understanding of tertiary education in a broader framework. All the contributions made by
individuals in this series are peer reviewed.
Series Editors
Glen Jones, University of Toronto, Canada
K.M. Joshi, M.K. Bhavnagar University, India
Marcelo Rabossi, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina
Stamelos Georgios, University of Patras, Greece
Saeed Paivandi, University of Lorraine, France
