Review by: Zellweger, Franziska (2004-08-30)

Rather than summarizing the current state Martin Trow tries to conceptualize actual developments in higher education issued by information and communication technology (ICT). In order to do so, he has chosen a language, that is close to the empirical reality and maintains value in the nearer future although actual technology may be obsolete already tomorrow.

If anybody, Martin Trow is the person to put actual developments in perspective. As a scholar of public policy he has worked in the field for more than 50 years, he headed the Center for Studies in Higher Education at Berkeley in the 70ies and 80ies and has contributed to the discussion ever since.

In the first section of the paper Trow identifies five stable characteristics, which shape how any technological innovation affects the form and process of higher education in any advanced society. They are 1) the speed of technological change, 2) the tendency of ICT’s to weaken and blur institutional and intellectual boundaries of all kinds; 3) the democratizing effect through the expansion of access and the leveling of the status of institutions; 4) the varying impact of ICT on different academic subjects; 5) and the different ways students use the new opportunities.

These characteristics suggest that developments in ICT cannot be treated as a single phenomenon. One has to specify what and where they are being used, for what and by whom to analyze its impact on higher education.

In his further explanations Trow focuses on some of the main issues discussed in higher education studies such as the growing demand for continuing education and the role of ICT, the way how distance learning will be integrated in traditional institutions and how it changes the nature of the work in these institutions. Finally he focuses on the normative debate on the basic educational functions of higher education (liberal and professional education) and how it is affected by ICT.

Trow’s evaluation of the influence of ICT on the higher education system is of a surprisingly optimistic nature in contrast to the many depictions that fear the worst for the basic academic values. He doesn’t expect the dissolution of traditional academia but envisions a combination of traditional and distance learning.

In a way he ignores the concrete impact the macro developments have on the individual university campus. In particular the alarming financial impact of growing student enrollments and the costly sustenance of an ICT infrastructure remain unmentioned. But by ignoring the current “micro” issues he manages to clarify the big picture and provides a language to discuss the impact of ICT on higher education, which is considered three years after its creation of value enough to be reviewed.