Reviewed by: Elizabeth Jacob, Department of Marketing, New Delhi Institute of Management, New Delhi, India

Richard Frederick Heller, a medical doctor and professor, joined the academia in 1969. Having a span of over 50 years in leadership capacities of medical schools in the developing world, the author brings to us his understandings on the dominance of competitive and managerial business models in university over education. Through the book, the author suggests some solutions that could improve the future health of the universities.

R. F. Heller begins with a contextual briefing about the First- to Fourth-generation Universities in the first chapter. University begins where school education ends, giving opportunities to move up the academic ladder and perform research. The First-generation Universities like Nalanda in India focused on education along with enlightenment. The Second-generation Universities added research to it yet kept the model simple. Third-generation Universities evolved to play role in building national capacities and began partnering with actors outside the university sector. The expansion of university education along with commercialisation of education and research demanded managerialism, bringing along the problems we experience these days.

Some of the problems of university education purported by the author and the solutions suggested are:

1. Universities are becoming consumer-oriented leading to their departure from their prime purpose—serve the public. The author contends that there needs to be a balance between consumer and community in driving university priorities.
2. Managerialism, which was intended to improve the performance of the public sector, has been introduced into academia uncritically. Academics are controlled by managers who have no expertise in education or research. We need to develop trust in academic staff to replace managerialism, as trust leads to many voluntary behaviours, lowering the costs of control. Less interference of managerialism can lead to better collaboration among faculty colleagues. Author contends that academia must be espoused of collegiality and civility grounded in the sacred values of academic freedom and autonomy.
3. The need for funds to financially sustain the university has led to an overemphasis on research with no conclusive evidence that better research leads to better education quality. Also, there has been a focus towards bringing more overseas enrolment, but not with the intention of bridging educational inequality but only for the funds it brings. But the students are also not provided enough academic quality for the money they pay; instead, faculty are more focused on research, leaving the role of teaching to teaching assistants. While universities need to survive financially, it becomes a problem when money-making becomes the prime motive deviant from public responsibility and wider social purpose for which universities need to exist for. University system itself rewards a non- core business (research) more than its core business (education). Global University rankings are based on the research undertaken by faculty; funds are granted based on research; and in order to attract overseas students, universities need to have good global rankings.
4. The need for funds has led to unhealthy competition between universities, leading to duplication of courses rather than collaborative efforts building on the strengths and resources of each other. The author proposes a ‘New Bloom’ taxonomy where collaborate has been added in between Analyse and Apply thus making it an educational outcome. He says that collaboration must become a key skill imparted to students because workplace demands teamwork. Research also requires collaboration, as multiple skills are required to tackle most of the problems.
5. Technological integration has been limited to provide the ‘sage in the stage’ approach of passive learning in education. Use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Open Educational Practices (OEPs) can help bring quality educational content to the access of students.
6. Environmental sustainability is ignored. While many conferences are organised around the theme of sustainability, which leads to more carbon footprint, the practical actions taken by universities towards environmental sustainability need to be evaluated. Trees are cut down to build new blocks, and faculty and students travelling daily to a physical environment all are detrimental to environment sustainability. Hence, the author propounds that there is a need to rethink education.

The book provides critical insights on the way universities and higher educational institutions function, focusing on the market, but does not provide a concrete operational model for financial sustainability, a need for any institution. Cost may be reduced by including use of OERs and OEPs, technology-integrated learning process that can help scale up education with no need for additional physical infrastructure. The book expounds a ‘Distributed University’ model for financial sustainability without compromising on its prime purpose of existence—social purpose. While implementing all the suggestions put forth by the author might be difficult, yet the book helps to recheck on whether we are being too market-oriented at the cost of education and ways by which we can cut cost and make use of the untapped opportunities available.

ORCID iD

Elizabeth Jacob  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5823-2734