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In what ways can universities around the world mobilize their resources to create more just and prosperous communities, while at the same time educating civic leaders? This collaboration from university professors, community partners, and students looking to inspire higher education reform seeks to answer that question. Regional Perspectives on Learning by Doing offers a diverse array of innovative teaching and research strategies from engaged universities—from Australia, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, Scotland, South Africa, and the United States—that demonstrates how learning by doing elevates students’ consciousness and develops their civic capabilities. While dealing creatively with pressing societal challenges, university students and others are learning together how to operate effectively in high- conflict situations; fashion bold approaches to combating poverty, promoting sustainability, and elevating public health; organize coalitions for change that bridge social and economic divides; and strengthen democratic decision-making in local communities and higher levels of governance. Students and teachers alike will gain valuable insight into building thriving communities as well as the tools to do so.

At one time, universities educated new generations and were a source of social change. Today colleges and universities are less places of public purpose, than agencies of personal advantage. Remaking the American University provides a penetrating analysis of the ways market forces have shaped and distorted the behaviors, purposes, and ultimately the missions of universities and colleges over the past half-century.

The authors describe how a competitive preoccupation with rankings and markets published by the media spawned an admissions arms race that drains institutional resources and energies. Equally revealing are the depictions of the ways faculty distance themselves from their universities with the resulting increase in the number of administrators, which contributes substantially to institutional costs. Other chapters focus on the impact of intercollegiate athletics on educational mission, even among selective institutions; on the unforeseen result of higher education's "outsourcing" a substantial share of the scholarly publication function to for-profit interests; and on the potentially dire consequences of today's zealous investments in e-learning.

A central question extends through this series of explorations: Can universities and colleges today still choose to be places of public purpose? In the answers they provide, both sobering and enlightening, the authors underscore a consistent and powerful lesson-academic institutions cannot ignore the workings of the markets. The challenge ahead is to learn how to better use those markets to achieve public purposes.