Higher education and the promise of democracy

There is a general consensus among academics around the world that higher education is in a state of crisis. Universities are now facing a growing set of challenges arising from budget cuts, diminishing quality, the downsizing of faculty, the militarization of research, and the revamping of the curriculum to fit the needs of the market.1 In the United States and Canada, many of the problems in higher education can be linked to low funding, the …