Changing the Conversation about Higher Education -- Values and Aims of Higher Education -- The De Facto Value of Higher Education -- Rethinking the De Facto Value of Higher Education -- Citizenship as an Aim of Higher Education -- The Liberal Argument for Compulsory Civic Education -- The Liberal Argument for Higher Civic Education -- Higher Civic Education, Autonomy, and Convergence -- Higher Civic Education as Vocational Education -- Adulthood and the Right to Education -- Personal Autonomy and the Right to Basic Education -- The Political Conception of the Person and Adult Citizens -- Adulthood and the Value of Education -- The Right to Higher Education -- The Political Responsibilities of Institutions -- Higher Education and the Basic Structure -- Liberty-Maximizing Justice -- Liberty-Maximizing Justice and the 'Fixed' Values of the University -- Autonomy-Supporting Knowledge and Educational Institutions -- The Right to Higher Education and Political Authority -- The Necessity (and Limits) of Political Authority Over Higher Education -- Anti-Perfectionism and Educational Authority -- Perfectionism and Educational Authority -- Liberty-Maximizing Educational Authority -- Applying Liberty-Maximizing Authority to Higher Education -- The Right to Higher Education and the Problem of Unequal Benefits -- Why the Distribution of Benefits and Burdens (Still) Matters -- The Socioeconomic Argument for Higher Education Funding -- The Liberty-Maximizing Argument for Higher Education Funding -- The Right to Higher Education and Unequal Benefits -- What Should the Right to Higher Education Look Like? -- The Argument Revisited -- Toward a Normative Stage Theory of Higher Education -- Social Forms, Expensive Tastes, and Ideal Institutions.
Summary:
"Is higher education a right, or a privilege? This author argues that all citizens in a free and open society should have an unconditional right to higher education. Such an education should be costless for the individual and open to everyone regardless of talent. A readiness and willingness to learn should be the only qualification. It should offer opportunities that benefit citizens with different interests and goals in life. And it should aim, as its foundational moral purpose, to help citizens from all walks of life live better, freer lives. Using concepts and ideas from liberal political philosophy the author argues that access to educational goods and services is something to which all citizens have a right over a full life. Such goods, it is argued, play a key role in helping citizens realize self-determined goals. Higher education should therefore be understood a basic social institution responsible for ensuring that all citizens can access such 'autonomy-supporting' goods. The book examines the implication of this justification of the right to higher education for questions of educational justice, political authority, distributive justice, civic education, and personal autonomy"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.