Douglas Lecture

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June 26, 2007
For immediate release

Dr. John Aubrey Douglass, Senior Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education, will present the lecture “The Waning of America’s Higher Education Advantage: A Look at California, the US, and the Advances of Global Competitors” on Wednesday, June 27 at 3 pm at UC Santa Barbara’s University Center – State Street Room. This event is free and open to the public. The event is co-sponsored by The Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies, the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, and the Office of Admissions.

Dr. Douglass, a former researcher and teacher at UC Santa Barbara, will derive the lecture from his new book The Conditions for Admissions: Access, Equity and the Social Contract of Public Universities (Stanford University Press 2007). He will examine how the United States has been the world leader in developing mass higher education, using its pioneering network of public universities to promote socioeconomic mobility and national competitiveness. But there is evidence that access and graduation rates have stagnated, particularly among younger students. Other countries, including key members of the European Union, along with China, India, and other developing nations, are aggressively reshaping and expanding their higher education systems. The “American advantage” of high-quality, high-access higher education is waning. The presentation will explore why this is the case and the possible consequences in an increasingly competitive global economy.

Douglass’s current research interests are focused on the student experience in research universities, the role of universities in economic development, science policy as a component of national and multinational economic policy, the evolving role of mass higher education in society, and the influence of globalization.

He has served as the deputy director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) from 1999 to 2002 and is the editor of the Center’s Research and Occasional Papers Series. Before coming to CSHE, he served as the chief policy analyst for the University of California’s Systemwide Academic Senate and held teaching and research positions at UC Santa Barbara. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Institute d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), a Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (OxCHEPS), and a Visiting Policy Analyst at the California Postsecondary Education Commission.

[John Douglass is available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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