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Palgrave Macmillan

Innovation, Profit and the Common Good in Higher Education

The New Alchemy

  • Book
  • © 2010

Overview

Authors:
  1. John Harpur

    1. National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland

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Part of the book series: Issues in Higher Education (IHIGHER)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Prolegomenon

    • John Harpur
    Pages 1-33

  3. Shopping in the Aula Maxima

    • John Harpur
    Pages 34-51

  4. Atlantic Mouse Becomes Celtic Tiger

    • John Harpur
    Pages 52-109

  5. Science and Universities: Shilling for a Living?

    • John Harpur
    Pages 110-163

  6. Firing up the New Alchemy — the Furnace of Innovation

    • John Harpur
    Pages 164-209

  7. Secrets — the Future of the Future University

    • John Harpur
    Pages 210-243

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 244-310
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Keywords

About this book

University ethics is everyone's business, and big business is what the university is all about whether in the US, Europe or the rest of the world. How this has come about is less important than that it has, and is being taken very seriously by global and national forces. The important issue confronting higher education is its assumed role in guaranteeing economic prosperity. Governments are no longer content to let research leak out serendipitously into the economy. The Post-Industrial Society, Information Society, Knowledge Economy and Smart Economy require nothing less than commercially directed research producing innovatory products. The public interest is reduced to economic measures. The political, social and moral implications of changing practices in the university are rarely acknowledged in the rise of the New Alchemy. This book examines the resulting ambiguities and questionable evidence in favour of current polices.

Reviews

'John Harpur raises very important issues in relation to Irish public policy. He deserves credit for being a rare insider in Ireland to address inconvenient truths to little emperors. His book is well researched and international in its scope.'

- Michael Hennigan, Found and Editor of Finfacts, Finfacts

'..this is a wide-ranging and interesting text that approaches the well-trodden territory of 'what are universities for?' and 'have they been hijacked for spurious economic benefit?' in a more scholarly way than is often the case.'

- British Journal of Education Studies

'Too often research into higher education policy issues oscillates from description to prescription with very little analysis in between. Harpur's book most definitely does not fall into this category it is scholarly work with strong analytical themes.' - Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education

'Harpur provides a fresh set of perspectives...constantly challenging orthodoxies, asking questions and drawing together and recombining elements in order to make something new.' - Higher Education Quarterly

Authors and Affiliations

  • National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland

    John Harpur

About the author

JOHN HARPUR is Lecturer in the Computer Science Department, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland. In 1998, he was awarded the Applied Ergonomics award for contributions to Human Factors. Along with academic articles, he has authored two books dealing with Asperger Syndrome directed at adolescents and college students. Between 2002 and 2006, he served as a Vice President in the Irish Federation of University Teachers.

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