Governance (International)

This paper analyzes whether four countries—Brazil, Mongolia, Ukraine, and the United States—are preparing their college graduates with the competencies and skills necessary to compete within a dynamic global economic, political, and social context. It profiles how the countries are addressing three specific facets of the challenges in workforce development: basic skills development, internships, and stakeholders. Several themes emerge ranging from a general lack of agreement among key stakeholders regarding desired workforce competencies to balancing the demand for specialized, technical training with needs for universal basic and applied academic skills. The brief provides recommendations for both developed and developing countries when attempting to satisfy evolving labor market demands.

Bastedo, Michael N. 2008. Rethinking Governance from the Ground Up: The Case of Muslim Students in Dutch Universities. Prospects: The Quarterly Journal of Comparative Education 37: 319-332.

It has become conventional wisdom in recent years that Europe faces a daunting challenge of social cohesion in the face of increasingly hostile and radical Islamic immigrants residing in European cities. Major questions have been raised about the ability of European states to create institutionalized mechanisms that will improve the integration of Muslim immigrants and especially their children, who often feel as if they are caught between two quite disparate cultures. This article, a study of faculty and research staff at two major universities in the Netherlands, sought to understand how faculty viewed the role of the university in relationship to national and European goals to promote social cohesion and the integration of Islamic minorities in Dutch society. The results indicate that the desire of the Dutch government and the European Union to take a “top-down” approach to promoting social cohesion must be seriously reconsidered in light of faculty power and institutionalized beliefs. Suggestions for more effective, "bottom-up" governance mechanisms are offered. Reprinted in Arabic, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Reprinted in part as Universities and Social Cohesion in the European Union. International Higher Education 52: 18-19.

Bastedo, Michael N. 2007. Sociological Frameworks for Higher Education Policy Research. Pp. 295-316 in Patricia J. Gumport (Ed.), The Sociology of Higher Education: Contributions and Their Contexts. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Reviews contemporary developments in organization theory and sociology, argues for new approaches to understanding politics, policymaking, and governance in higher education.

Heyneman, Stephen P., Richard Kraince, Nancy Lesko, and Michael N. Bastedo. 2007. Higher Education and Social Cohesion. Pp. 55-78 in Philip G. Altbach and Patti McGill Peterson (Eds.), Higher Education in the New Century: Global Challenges and Innovative Ideas. Rotterdam: UNESCO and Sense Publishers.

Discussing the concept of social cohesion and its application to higher education. Argues that increasing attention should be paid to the goal of social cohesion at the international level, provides a plan for states to examine the social cohesion efforts within their country context. Specific examples are provided from the Netherlands, South Africa, Indonesia, and former Soviet republics.

Bastedo, Michael N. and Patricia J. Gumport. 2003. Access to What? Mission Differentiation and Academic Stratification in U.S. Public Higher Education. Higher Education 46: 341-359.

Academic policy initiatives have long been a powerful lever for mission differentiation within U.S. public higher education. Although the higher education literature has examined basic issues in the design of public systems, the tension between access and differentiation has not been explored. Drawing upon comparative case studies of public higher education in Massachusetts and New York, this article examines recent policy initiatives to terminate academic programs, eliminate remedial education, and promote honors colleges within each state system. The analysis depicts how these policies contribute to increased stratification of programs and students within a state system as well as within particular campuses in a system. The authors argue that policy analysis in higher education should develop a more refined conceptualization of access that examines the cumulative impact of contemporary policies on the stratification of student opportunity.

Revised: May 19, 2009