The McDonaldization of Higher Education

The term "McDonaldization" was coined by George Ritzer in 1993 and is a valuable tool for providing a theoretical and practical debate concerning novel and defining features of our contemporary world. The contributors to this collection, academics and writers from three countries, examine the McDonaldization of higher education in contemporary society. The growing literature on McDonaldization shows the power of the term to describe the extension of industrial rationalization (commodification) to wider society. In the context of higher education, one can see the application of Ritzer's four features of McDonaldization - efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. For example: higher education is becoming more efficient because it is processing more students by introducing multiple choice exams (US) or by removing exams altogether (UK) and replacing them with forms of continuous assessment, which leads to grade inflation and more students passing. The contributors to this volume, 15 academics and writers from three continents, examine what can be called the "McDonaldization of higher education" and the impact this has on the idea of the university as a liberal institution primarily engaged in the pursuit of knowledge.

ISBN 0897898567   DEWEY edition DC21 ISBN13 9780897898560 (What's this?)   Pages 297 Publisher ABC-CLIO   Volumes 1 Imprint Greenwood Press   Weight (grammes) 480 Format Hardback   Published in Westport Publication date 30 Aug 2002   Height (mm) 235 Non-book description x, 222 p. ;   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress LC67   Spine width (mm) 22 DEWEY 378   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly

		Preface
		Abbreviations and Acronyms
		Introduction by Dennis Hayes and Robin Wynyard		1
1		Enchanting McUniversity: Toward a Spectacularly Irrational University Quotidian by George Ritzer		19
2		The Bureaucratization of the British University by Frank Furedi		33
3		Accounting for Anxiety: Economic and Cultural Imperatives Transforming University Life by Barry Smart		43
4		Modules and Markets: Education and Work in the "Information Age" by Gavin Poynter		57
5		Digital Technologies and Competing Models of Higher Education by Caroline Hodges Persell		71
6		The Online Campus by James Woudhuysen		84
7		From Power Plays to Market Moves: The Standard in Higher Education by Alan Hudson		103
8		Total Quality Control: Universities, Language, and Politics by Martin Parker		114
9		The Massification of Higher Education by Claire Fox		129
10		Taking the Hemlock? The New Sophistry of Teacher Training for Higher Education by Dennis Hayes		143
11		Did I Sign Up for This? Comments on the New Higher Education by Mary Evans		159
12		Feminist Education: Rebellion within McUniversity by Jane A. Rinehart		167
13		Novelty and Crisis in the World of McKnowledge by Joanne Finkelstein		180
14		Does Rationality Gum Up the Educational System? by Ngure wa Mwachofi		190
15		Hamburgerology by Degrees by Robin Wynyard		200
		Index		211
		About the Editors and Contributors		219

?[a] provocative introduction to many views of the changes taking place in higher education.?-Journal of Higher Education

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