Indispensable University

As the fourth president of Virginia Commonwealth University and the president and chair of the board of directors of the VCU Health System, Eugene P. Trani positioned the university as a key driver in regional and statewide economic development. Currently president emeritus and university distinguished professor at VCU, Trani has authored, co-authored, annotated, and edited eight books and published more than one hundred articles and op-eds, including two major books on foreign policy.Robert D. Holsworth was the founding director of both the Center for Public Policy and the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has authored or co-authored five books and numerous articles on American politics and public policy. His observations on national and Virginia politics have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and numerous other media. He runs the non-partisan political Web site VirginiaTomorrow.com and is a principal in two research and planning groups.

• Chapter 1 ForewordChapter 2 Basic Premise: Colleges and Universities Indispensable to Economic and Community DevelopmentChapter 3 The New Role of Higher Education: Economic and Community DevelopmentChapter 4 U.S Higher Education: The Emergence of Urban UniversitiesChapter 5 U.S. Higher Education: The Reinvention of the Land-Grant UniversityChapter 6 U.S. Higher Education: Community College, A Uniquely American InstitutionChapter 7 British and Irish Higher Education: Ancient but Thoroughly ModernChapter 8 Middle Eastern Higher Education: Two Oases in the DesertChapter 9 Higher Education in Developing Countries: The BRIC NationsChapter 10 Conclusions: Colleges and Universities Indispensable to Economic and Community Development

Indispensable Universities addresses timely and increasingly universal issues in ways that seem to me to be accessible to audiences whose members need the reasoning and information that is provided. It has been a pleasure to read and reread the manuscript. It is imaginative and informed and it has gravity. Its evidentiary basis is solid. It reflects the sound of two wise men talking about matters on which they are utterly qualified to speak. Not many books can claim to do that. I can imagine this book as the kind of standard work that university leaders as well as state and federal policy makers will have to read.