Understanding Contemporary Issues in Higher Education

This insightful book offers a wide-ranging collection of lively discussions on contemporary issues, policies and practices in higher education. Bartram integrates contributions from experienced academics, teachers and students in a unique approach and structure, designed to enable students with both specific and wide-ranging interests in higher education to extend their understanding.Including discussion points, research tasks and suggestions on further reading in each chapter, Understanding Contemporary Issues in Higher Education discusses a range of topics, such as: universities and the mental health ‘crisis’; knowledge, the state and the market; the role of technology in teaching and academic celebrification; disability, diversity and inclusive placement learning.Written specifically for Education Studies students, this book constitutes a timely addition to student-focused themed studies looking at aspects of higher education.

'At the time of writing my endorsement of this fascinating book, the 2020 global Covid-19 pandemic is creating profound uncertainty about which universities will survive and new questions about who they are for and what, and how, to teach in them. The timely publication of this thought-provoking and wide-ranging book will enable readers to locate the fallout from the pandemic in a longer history of constant change, growing government regulation, risk, precariousness and fluctuating educational and social tensions around diversity, well-being and participation in the British higher education system.' - Kathryn Ecclestone, retired professor of education and co-author of The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education, published in 2008 and reissued in 2018 as part of Routledge’s Classics in Education series'This book provides a thorough overview and analysis of contemporary trends and issues in higher education, focusing on many of the tensions and contradictions that are embedded in universities today. It will inspire and motivate further discussion and debate on key issues in the field. As higher education continues to adapt to new challenges and opportunities, Understanding Contemporary Issues in Higher Education is essential reading for students and researchers alike.' - Professor Robin Shields, School of Education, University of Bristol, UK, 'At the time of writing my endorsement of this fascinating book, the 2020 global Covid-19 pandemic is creating profound uncertainty about which universities will survive and new questions about who they are for and what, and how, to teach in them. The timely publication of this thought-provoking and wide-ranging book will enable readers to locate the fallout from the pandemic in a longer history of constant change, growing government regulation, risk, precariousness and fluctuating educational and social tensions around diversity, well-being and participation in the British higher education system.' - Kathryn Ecclestone, retired professor of education and co-author of The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education, published in 2008 and reissued in 2018 as part of Routledge’s Classics in Education series'This book provides a thorough overview and analysis of contemporary trends and issues in higher education, focusing on many of the tensions and contradictions that are embedded in universities today. It will inspire and motivate further discussion and debate on key issues in the field. As higher education continues to adapt to new challenges and opportunities, Understanding Contemporary Issues in Higher Education is essential reading for students and researchers alike.' - Professor Robin Shields, School of Education, University of Bristol, UK

Brendan Bartram is Reader in Education at the University of Wolverhampton, UK.