This is the first book to critically analyze the future of higher education systems in the four BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - and the USA, analyzing academic salaries, contracts and working conditions and how national policy will affect the academic profession in each context.

This is a study of higher education in the world's four largest developing economies—Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Already important players globally, by mid-century, they are likely to be economic powerhouses. But whether they reach that level of development will depend in part on how successfully they create quality higher education that puts their labor forces at the cutting edge of the information society. Using an empirical, comparative approach, this book develops a broad picture of the higher education system in each country in the context of both global and local forces. The authors offer insights into how differing socioeconomic and historic patterns of change and political contexts influence developments in higher education. In asking why each state takes the approach that it does, this work situates a discussion of university expansion and quality in the context of governments' educational policies and reflects on the larger struggles over social goals and the distribution of national resources.

In spite of the increasing attention attributed to the rise in prominence of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, few studies have looked at the ways in which broader social expectations with respect to the role of higher education across the BRICS have changed, or not, in recent years. Our point of departure is that, contrary to the conventional wisdom focusing on functionalistic perspectives, higher education systems are not just designed by governments to fulfill certain functions, but have a tendency for evolving in a rather unpredictable fashion as a result of the complex interplay between a number of internal and external factors. In reality, national higher education systems develop and change according to a complex process that encompasses the expectations of governmental agencies, markets, the aspirations of the population for the benefits of education, the specific institutional traditions and cultures of higher education institutions, and, increasingly so, the interests and strategies of the private firms entering and offering services in the higher education market. This basically means that it is of outmost importance to move away from conceiving of "universities" or "higher education" as single, monolithic actors or sector. One way of doing this is by investigating a selected number of distinct, but nonetheless interrelated factors or drivers, which, taken together, help determine the nature and scope of the social compact between higher education (its core actors and institutions) and society at large (government, industry, local communities, professional associations).

The main thesis of this book is that, given that South African education faces major challenges, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) constellation of states offers — thus far overlooked — a valuable tertium comparationis, a source of international comparative perspectives, to inform the domestic scholarly discourse on education. This book first investigates the national contexts and development of education in the BRICS countries, arguing that this grouping represents a valuable but yet overlooked field for illuminating South African education issues with international perspectives. The book consists of chapters arguing for and illustrating this thesis from a variety of angles. Common to all chapters is that authors used the comparative method in education, that is comparing the national education system, in their education societal context interrelationships, of the BRICS countries. The chapters focus on a number of critical issues in South African education, including the language of learning and teaching issue, the alignment of the world of education with the world of work, early childhood education, and the development of world-class universities. Regarding the last, for example, China has been the terrain of the most intensive national projects of establishing world-class universities, with Project 985, Project 211, and the “Double First Class University” project. The chapters demonstrate what South Africa, in approaching her education issues, can learn from the experience of the BRICS countries.

Discussions on globalization now routinely focus on the economic impact of developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and Latin America. Only twenty-five years ago, many developing countries were largely closed societies. Today, the growing power of “emerging markets” is reordering the geopolitical landscape. On a purchasing power parity basis, emerging economies now constitute half of the world’s economic activity. Financial markets too are seeing growing integration: Asia now accounts for 1/3 of world stock markets, more than double that of just 15 years ago. Given current trajectories, most economists predict that China and India alone will account for half of global output by 2050 (almost a complete return to their positions prior to the Industrial Revolution). How is higher education shaping and being shaped by these massive tectonic shifts? As education rises as a geopolitical priority, it has converged with discussions on economic policy and a global labor market. As part of the Routledge Studies in Emerging Societies series, this edited collection focuses on the globalization of higher education, particularly the increasing symbiosis between advanced and developing countries. Bringing together senior scholars, journalists, and practitioners from around the world, this collection explores the relatively new and changing higher education landscape.

This edited volume critically engages with the debate on teacher education systems in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), considering the effects of contemporary globalisation processes on each differing geographic location. Written by leading researchers from the BRICS countries, chapters reveal the processes present in these countries regarding the often-problematic relationships between research, policy, and practice, as well as the extent of integration between higher education institutions and basic schools, with particular emphasis on teachers’ professional development. With a particular focus on the role of research and positioning of the school practicum, the book offers new insights into the processes of educational globalisation. It presents comparative discussions of the development of BRICS and the significance of education and preparation of teachers between the five nations, each with differing educational traditions. Ultimately, this book provides a unique picture of teacher education systems across these five countries and offers new perspectives that will enrich the work of scholars, students, and researchers in the fields of international and comparative education, education policy and politics, globalisation, and teacher education. Policymakers and teacher educators involved in globalisation studies may also benefit from the volume more broadly.

This is the first book to critically analyze the future of higher education systems in the four BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - and the USA, analyzing academic salaries, contracts and working conditions and how national policy will affect the academic profession in each context.

This book reconceives the internationalization of higher education from the perspective of Global-South researchers, empowering and giving visibility to this discourse. Challenging the first assumptions of internationalization of higher education (IHE) as something overwhelmingly positive owing to the way it directly impacts the university activities and their world rankings, it instead takes a critical perspective, acknowledging that this process is associated with a neo-liberal and colonial orientation that focuses on the maintenance of historically sustained hierarchy, oppressive relations that stimulate the production of knowledge, and education as a commodity and not as a factor of social transformation. As such, it challenges recent trends towards an increase in internationalization strategies within higher education that privilege Global-North outgoing mobilities and research collaborations to sustain the position of the educational institutions in the international rankings. From this locus, IHE is seen to evolve not only in the fields of teaching, research, and service of an educational institution but also to boost the world’s social development. The book thus illustrates how IHE should be guided by Critical Applied Linguistics (CAL) and Global South’s principles: applied linguistics, praxis, critical thinking, micro and macro relations, critical social inquiry, critical theory, problematizing givens, self-reflexivity, preferred futures, and heterosis. Comprising chapters that discuss academic, political, and administrative issues arising specifically from the internationalization process of Global-South higher education institutions as well as themes such as critical language education and language policies, it will appeal to faculty, researchers, and scholars with interests in higher education, international and comparative education, and the decolonization of education.

The single best book on higher education as a global phenomenon. Over the past half-century, globalization has had a profound impact on postsecondary education. The twin forces of mass higher education and the global knowledge economy have driven an unprecedented transformation. These fundamental changes have pulled in opposite directions: one pushes for wider access and accompanying challenges of quality, the other toward exclusive, “world class” research-oriented universities. In Global Perspectives on Higher Education, renowned higher education scholar Philip G. Altbach offers a wide-ranging perspective on the implications of these key forces and explores how they influence academe everywhere. Altbach begins with a discussion of the global trends that increasingly affect higher education, including the implications of mass enrollments, the logic of mass higher education systems around the world, and specific challenges facing Brazil, Russia, India, and China. He considers the numerous implications of globalization, including the worldwide use of the English language, university cross-border initiatives, the role of research universities in developing countries, the impact of the West on Asian universities, and the expansion of private higher education. Provocative and wide-ranging, Global Perspectives on Higher Education considers how the international exchange of ideas, students, and scholars has fundamentally altered higher education.