Market Values in American Higher Education

Charles W. Smith, longtime economic sociologist and onetime academic administrator, is currently professor and chair of sociology at Queens College, CUNY. He is the author of numerous books and articles including Success and Survival on Wall Street: Understanding the Mind of the Market and Auctions: The Social Construction of Value.

• Part 1 The Pitfalls of False Economic Diagnoses Chapter 2 Runway Costs: Allegations and Reality Chapter 3 Why Education Seems So Expensive Chapter 4 Bad Management : Allegations and Reality Chapter 5 So Why the Bad Rap? Multiple Products and Multiple Markets Part 6 The Pitfalls of Faulty Economic Cures Chapter 7 Cutting Costs and Raising Revenues Chapter 8 Expanding Academic Administration Chapter 9 Curtailing Traditional Faculty Governance and Reward Systems Part 10 The Promise of Unexploited Market Resources Chapter 11 Real Issues Confronting Higher Education Chapter 12 Practical Possibilities and Successful Innovations Chapter 13 Recapturing the American Dream Chapter 14 Methodological Note: An Outsider Insider’s View Chapter 15 Notes/References

Is American higher education rife with inefficiency and mismanagement? Blunt, clever, factual, and backed by years of both faculty and administrative experience, Charles W. Smith effectively rebuts these widespread charges against higher education. Market Values in American Higher Education should transform the national debate on these issues.