Higher Education's Social Role

Introduction to a JHE Special Issue

Higher education's role in society has changed and evolved, matching the trends and emphases of public life. Usually reacting, but sometimes initiating change, colleges and universities have been shaped by and have played a part in shaping the surrounding society. This issue of JHE is devoted to understanding those interactions. As background for the articles in the following pages, one can analyze these relationships over seven decades, as revealed in the earlier issues of the Journal of Higher Education. First published in 1930, the journal was essentially the only journal devoted to higher education for its first forty years. It also served as a kind of Chronicle of Higher Education for that same period, featuring news and editorials about current topics in higher education. It is thus an ideal source for understanding scholarly views of the changing role of higher education in society. The articles in the 1930s reveal …

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Publication information: Article title: Higher Education's Social Role. Contributors: Not available. Journal title: Journal of Higher Education. Volume: 72. Issue: 2 Publication date: March 2001. Page number: 121. © 1999 Ohio State University Press. COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group.

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