Editor's Welcome

Abstract

Higher Education in a Global Society: Achieving Diversity, Equity and Excellence compiled by Allen, Bonous-Hammarth and Teranishi is a welcomed addition to the series, Advances in Education in Diverse Communities: Research, Policy and Praxis. All that was intended in the initial conceptualization of the multi-volume series is richly embodied in this single volume. We, as Americans, are often known for our insularity, as though the world and its axis begin and end in the West. Higher Education in a Global Society moves us beyond that narrow context to higher terrain, to broader intellectual conceptualization. By embracing the notion of tertiary education in its global tapestry, the volume vividly analyzes the promise and peril that often co-exist in education, in various nation states. A signal contribution of this work is that it does not conceptualize the education enterprise in a steady state, but one which is in transition as schools at all levels confront the conflicting, often contradictory demands of a global society and global economy. Even more compelling in the volume is the constituent strand of social responsibility in the discussion of not only those who advance through the tertiary system of education, but those who fail to advance through the same system. Congratulations are offered to not only the co-editors for the compilation of this fine work, but to the Rockefeller Study Center in Bellagio, Italy for their wisdom in hosting the conference venue where these papers were initially delivered. If prognostications are at all appropriate here, Higher Education in a Global Society will be read, re-read and referenced for many years to come.