Book review of "Palace of ashes: China and the decline of American higher education"

Abstract

Ferrara, M. S. (2015). Palace of Ashes: and the Decline of American Higher Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Pages: 206. Price: 29.95 USD (hardcover).This book is a case study of education (HE) in the US, or rather two studies, as developments in the US are compared with developments in the HE sector in China. While the focus is mainly on the last 30 years the study goes back to the very beginnings of learning both in the West and in China, which helps one's understanding of the different roots and traditions of what much later became known as higher education. Although he is no education researcher, the author is well qualified to undertake such a study as he is familiar with both countries, having taught and lived for several years in (as well as South Korea), is familiar with the Chinese language, and has traveled widely in as the director of the Chinese Exchange Program at Drake University. A professor of English, he currently holds a faculty position at the State University of New York.Ferrara's main argument is that, while is massively investing in education and in universities in particular, universities in the US are losing their position as world-wide leaders in education due to major cuts of public budgets for education and, partly as a consequence, the adoption of a neoliberal agenda-i.e., of corporate values and organization. The list of Ferrara's complaints about the decline of US education is long and includes: the erosion of academic freedom through the loss of faculty governance; the disappearance of tenured professors and their replacement, on the one hand, by poorly paid and disposable lecturers, and, on the other, a growing class of overpaid administrators; and rising tuition, which makes education unaffordable for many students or puts them into debt for years after graduation. Similarly, the author bemoans the disappearance or significant reduction of the role of the liberal arts, and generally the vocationalization of education programs at the expense of the humanities and social studies.This list is neither new nor unfamiliar, since many books have been published over the last ten years or so in the US on the crisis of the university, most of them written by faculty members like Ferrara or other university insiders (e.g., Derek Bok, former Harvard president, who published Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education, in 2003). What is new and original, however, is his juxtaposition of the two largest education systems in the world, belonging to the two biggest economic powers.Describing the Chinese system, Ferrara does not idealize it but points out several major flaws that are keeping it from ascending to real academic excellence and becoming a world model. The most important of these is the lack of academic freedom of faculty members because of the tight control by the Communist Party and the state authorities. Likewise, the massive clampdown at Tiananmen Square against student protests in the spring of 1989 is mentioned as an example of a tightly controlled education system, which is at odds with the Western ideals of free and critical thinking and freedom of (academic) speech.The author's comparison of the two systems gives just one, but an important advantage over the US: the recognition that education and academic research are the most important elements of modernization and competition in a global market and that, therefore, they must be recognized and financed accordingly.Although the book's subtitle China and the Decline of American Higher Education seems to suggest that China's massive investment and build-up of education infrastructure and capacity has a direct or indirect effect on developments in US education, this is not substantiated in the book. …