The university in development: case studies of use-oriented research

Abstract

A seminal study, The University in Development explores how the university is indeed 'in development': pursuing a new 'third' mission of external societal development (alongside its two existing missions of teaching and research), and experiencing a major internal revolution as this impacts on its structural organisation. Already prevalent in many institutions internationally, this third academic mission has begun to pose troubling challenges to existing academic research cultures and systems in South Africa.

Emerging from an extended longitudinal study, The University in Development provides a powerful analysis of the complex nexus of transformation occurring between universities and the rapidly changing global society of which they form a part. Embedded within the book is a central theoretical claim: that driving this new international transformation within universities is a global post-1970s new capitalist industrial revolution, with economies seeking out use-inspired basic research at universities in order to survive and grow within the competitive international market. The analysis thus provides new understandings of current concepts of 'globalisation', 'use-oriented' research, 'knowledge society and economy', and 'national system of innovation'.

The University in Development will be of interest to scholars in the fields of higher education, innovation studies and the sociology of knowledge, and is of critical relevance to policy-makers.