Martin Trow

Reflections on the Transition from Elite to Mass to Universal Access: Forms and Phases of Higher Education in Modern Societies since WWII

Reflections on the Transition from Elite to Mass to Universal Access: Forms and Phases of Higher Education in Modern Societies since WWII Forthcoming in Philip Altbach, ed., International Handbook of Higher Education, Kluwer. 2005. Martin Trow Introduction This chapter seeks to reflect and update a set of concepts, first introduced over 30 years ago, regarding the transformation of higher education (Trow, 1973). 1 The ideas of this original essay, as nicely summed up recently by British author John Brennan (2004), illustrate three forms of higher education: (1) elite—shaping the mind and character of a ruling class; preparation for elite roles; (2) mass—transmission of skills and preparation for a broader range of technical and economic elite roles; and (3) universal—adaptation of the ‘whole population’ to rapid social and technological change. Table 1 (p.63) provides a useful summary of these stages of higher education development. Brennan observes that “While these may not capture all of the nuances of current higher education debates, they nevertheless appear to be remarkably prescient of some of the key issues that we face as we embark in the UK on the move, in Trow’s terms, from mass to universal higher education . It should also be emphasized that Trow never saw these distinctions as empirical descriptions of real higher education systems, rather as models or ‘ideal types’ to aid our comprehension of such systems. And a further point to remember is that although he saw these forms as sequential stages, he did not regard it as inevitable that the later stages would completely replace the earlier ones. In particular, he saw definite possibilities of examples of elite forms surviving in the mass and universal stages.” 2 Three decades later, this chapter revisits some of these concepts and models, exploring the question of their continuing usefulness in understanding modern systems of higher education, so much larger, more diverse and complex than the systems the earlier paper addressed. And it raises the question of whether and where those concepts would need to be modified to illuminate

Trust, markets and accountability in higher education: A comparative perspective*

In recent years problems have emerged around the American system of accrediting colleges and universities - a peculiar system involving voluntary regional associations of colleges and universities, public and private, which appoint committees of academics to make visits to their member institutions and report first on whether they are reasonably decent institutions of higher education, and secondly, on how they might improve themselves. This paper explores these issues comparatively in the American and European contexts.

The Second Transformation of American Secondary Education

The past few years have seen a very large amount of public controversy over education in America. The controversy has touched on every aspect and level of education, from nursery school to graduate education, and the spokesmen have represented many different interests and points of view. But the focus of the controversy has been the public high school, its organization and curriculum, and the philosophy of education that governs it. On one side, with many individual exceptions and variations in views, stand the professional educators and their organizations. As the creators and administrators of the existing system, American educators not surprisingly by and large defend it, and while accepting and even initiating specific reforms, tend to justify existing practices, institutional arrangements, and dominant philosophies of education. On the other side, a

American Perspectives on British Higher Education under Thatcher and Major

ABSTRACT This paper discusses some of the persistent themes in the troubled relationship between government and universities over the past 18 years‐‐the absence of serious discussion, and of trust, between them; the dilemmas facing governments committed to a market ideology but also considering themselves responsible for academic standards and the distribution of students between subjects; the curious insistence by both government and academics that, despite continuous cuts in per capita support, standards have not fallen and may even have risen; the decline in ‘truth telling’ by the academic community, and its acceptance of a new language to describe their activities; the deformations of academic life flowing from the attempts to measure departments’ research quality. It concludes with some observations on academic ‘slack’ that the Thatcher/Major governments wished to eliminate, and a summary characterisation of their policies over the last 18 years.

The Democratization of Higher Education in America

American higher education is currently undergoing an enormous and rapid expansion. Between 1939 and 1961 the number of students enrolled in colleges and universities and earning credits toward degrees rose from about 1.3 million to over 3.9 million (1). This three-fold increase has resulted almost completely from increasing rates of enrollment, since the population of college age—that is, the 18 to 21 year olds—was almost exactly as large in 1939 as in 1960 (2). The difference is that in 1939 college and university enrollments comprised about 14% of the 18–21 year old population, while by 1961 that figure was about 38%. This rate has been increasing at an average of 1% a year since the end of World War II.

The Dearing Report: A Transatlantic View

The Dearing Report reflects the perspectives on higher education of the Government that appointed it, perspectives that are widely shared among the leaders of British institutions outside of academic life. It is of interest for that, rather than for its recommendations, which are fundamentally flawed. The Report does not show an intimate knowledge of the institutions about which it advises; it separates its discussions of finance from its comments on teaching and learning; it ignores the wide diversity of higher education institutions, subjects, and students in making its sweeping recommendations, and it does not recognise the limits of its own knowledge, nor make provision for the continuing improvement of the knowledge and understanding on which future policies for British higher education might be based. For these and other reasons, the Report is now one of the many problems facing British higher education rather than part of their solution.

The implications of low growth rates for higher education

The implications of low growth rates for higher education in the United States are discussed. Though some individual institutions may face financial difficulties, the problems associated with lower growth rates are likely to be organizational and educational rather than economic. Typical and possible responses to problems created by the transition from fast to slow growth are analysed, and the article ends with a discussion of important questions raised by the response to lower growth rates: the tendency towards more centralization has dangers for the diversity which is the best way of maintaining the flexibility needed to cope with an uncertain future.

Class, Race, and Higher Education in America

Class, Race, and Higher Education in America Martin Trow Goldman School of Public Policy University of California, Berkeley Social Class and Higher Education Mass higher education in the United States, with universal access in many places, has many functions that it shares with similar institutions around the world. However, it has one function which is perhaps unique to us: it is the central instrument for the legitimation of a society around the principle of broad (and in principle, equal), opportunities open to all individuals, opportunities to improve themselves and to make their careers and lives through their own efforts and talents. Our 3,500 accredited colleges and universities, offering course work at every level of standard and difficulty to an enormously diverse student body, serve a wide variety of functions for the students and for the society at large. While most of them offer some liberal and general studies, they serve as the chief avenue of entry to middle class occupations--even to quite modest lower-middle class occupations, which in most countries would not require or reward exposure to post-secondary education. These institutions, without the kinds of educational ceilings common in European non-university forms of post-secondary schooling, encourage students to raise their aspirations through further study, full or part- time, and provide the possibility of transfer to advanced studies elsewhere if they do not have such provisions themselves. They thus reflect and reinforce the radical individualism of American values, a set of values deeply opposed to socialist principles which center on cooperative efforts at group advancement, and on the common effort to create a society whose members all profit (more or less equally) from the common effort. American higher education, as a system, both serves and celebrates the American Dream of individual careers open to talents, a dream given much of its institutional reality in the contemporary world precisely by Americas system of mass higher education offering a clear alternative to socialist principles of class identification and horizontal loyalty. The contrast between these competitive visions is captured in the stirring appeal of Eugene Debs, the last socialist leader in the United States with any significant following (he gained nearly a million votes Published in Gary Marks and Larry Diamond, eds., Reexamining Democracy, London, Sage Publications, 1992, pp. 275-293.

Comparative Perspectives on Higher Education Policy in the UK and the US 1

1Revision of the First Plenary Address to the Anglo‐American Conference on Access and Quality in Higher Education, Princeton, New Jersey, 20‐23 September, 1987.

Notes on American higher education: “Planning” for universal access in the context of uncertainty

This article presents an overview of developments in U.S. higher education at the present time. There is a large, continuing and inherent uncertainty about student demand and there is also uncertainty about the nature and extent of Federal support for higher education. A levelling-out in terms of size and of budgets is anticipated and the system is having to learn how to cope with the implications of a “steady state” rather than an expanding system. One of the results of a “steady state” is that state planning efforts are no longer aimed at merely managing growth; there is a new tendency towards seeking to evaluate and improve academic programs. The relations between higher education and the state, and the dangers of increasing state intervention into the heart of the teaching-learning process, are questions to which our best efforts at “planning” might be addressed.