Steven Brint

• Ph.D.
• University of California, Riverside

In recent years an uneasy peace has descended in U.S. academe between those who feel research universities have done too little to advance the representation of minority groups and women and those who feel that the administrative policies developed to improve representation can and sometimes do come into conflict with core intellectual commitments...

Are we nearing the end of a worldwide era of university expansion and influence – and, if so, why? The two books under consideration suggest very different answers to these questions. David John Frank and John W. Meyer’s The University and the Global Knowledge Society anticipates continued expansion and influence as university enrollments grow thro...

Recent scholars of the professions have argued that a new hybrid form of professionalism is becoming dominant. This new form combines traditional commitments to ethics and community service with new commitments to managerial and entrepreneurial objectives. We analyze the perceptions of 4,300 U.S. graduate students in 21 fields concerning how well t...

The trend toward continuous expansion of U.S. post-secondary enrollments was reversed in the 2010s. Using pooled state-level data in between-within models, we examine public higher education enrollment trends during the 2009–2019 period. We emphasize variation in the net associations of covariates by tiers. State economic conditions showed stronger...

The costs of attending four‐year colleges and universities in the United States have steadily increased over four decades leading to high levels of student debt and many obstacles for low‐income students. The analysis presented appraises the extent of the cost and affordability problems, debunking the sensationalistic claims that are common in mass...

Social science interest in professionals and managers as a left- and liberal-trending stratum has increased in recent years. Using General Social Survey data over a 44-year period, the authors examine 15 attitudes spanning social, economic, and political identity liberalism. On nearly all attitudes, professionals and managers have trended in a libe...

The paper examines student and programmatic emphases for three ascendant priorities of U.S. research universities: (1) interdisciplinary collaboration, (2) entrepreneurial activities, and (3) diversification. Using principal components, regression, and cluster analyses, we investigate responses of more than 4,000 students from five major research u...

Status transmission theory argues that leading educational institutions prepare individuals from privileged backgrounds for positions of prestige and power in their societies. We examine the educational backgrounds of more than 2,900 members of the U.S. cultural elite and compare these backgrounds to a sample of nearly 4,000 business and political...

We consider features of cocurricular activities as important learning environments outside of the classroom. Using survey data from seven large public research universities we investigated 17 specific learning opportunities that occur in student clubs and organizations. We found that cocurricular learning experiences are common and that students pl...

Today's headlines suggest that universities' power to advance knowledge and shape American society is rapidly declining. But this book's author has tracked numerous trends demonstrating their vitality. After a recent period that witnessed soaring student enrollment and ample research funding, the book argues that universities are in a better positi...

This chapter examines how, in the college-for-all era, colleges and universities simultaneously maintained and expanded high-status tracks and locations. In most cases the mechanisms that colleges used to encourage high-achieving and motivated students reinforced rather than redistributed family-related social advantages. These mechanisms ranged fr...

This chapter considers the weakness that strikes at the core of academe's objectives and makes the triumph of online alternatives more plausible. The issue has been diplomatically described as “underachievement” in undergraduate education, but it could be described equally well as the failure to inculcate professional standards and expectations for...

Extending and expanding Geiger and Feller’s (1995) analysis of increasing dispersion in R&D expenditures during the 1980s, the paper analyzes publication and citation counts as well as R&D expenditures for 194 top producers using Web of Science data. We find high and stable levels of inequality in the 1990s and 2000s, combined with robust growth bo...

The paper provides new empirical evidence on the educational backgrounds of US business and government leaders. Analyzing a sample of 3,990 senior executives drawn from 15 sectors, including government, we find significant industry variation. Industries whose products depend primarily on the manipulation of symbolic media were the most likely to re...

Press reports and industry statistics both give incomplete pictures of the outcomes of the Great Recession for U.S. four-year colleges and universities. To address these gaps, we conducted a statistical analysis of all articles that appeared in Lexis-Nexis on a sample of more than 300 U.S. colleges and universities during the Recession years. We id...

Press reports and industry statistics both give incomplete pictures of the outcomes of the Great Recession for U.S. four-year colleges and universities. To address these gaps, we conducted a statistical analysis of all articles that appeared in Lexis-Nexis on a sample of more than 300 U.S. colleges and universities during the Recession years. We id...

I was born in Albuquerque, NM in 1951. My father, one of the first computer systems analysts, worked in the defense industry at Sandia Laboratories. My mother raised three boys and acted in local theater. Both of my parents were Jewish, but secular by orientation. Though neither held advanced degrees, they were politically liberal and intellectuall...

The social position of the professions was historically built, in part, on claims to higher ethical principles than those on which business people relied. This ideology began to wane in the early twentieth century and by the 1960s was no longer dominant. I argue that that a coherent and broadly inclusive ideology of professional responsibility cann...

We theorize 5 dimensions of academic disengagement based on students’ values, motivations, study behaviors, academic interactions, and competing involvements. Using 2010 survey data from the University of California, we find support for this conceptualization. The size of disengaged populations varied between 5% and 25%, depending on the measure us...

This study compares the explanatory power of two models of academic governance: dual and managerial control. The research is based on characterizations by chief academic officers of the primary decision-makers involved in 13 types of recurrent academic decisions. We examine change between responses to surveys fielded to US four-year colleges and un...

This research identifies 22 fields that declined in absolute numbers and/or prevalence over a 35-year period. Most were basic fields in the arts and sciences. Steep declines were evident only in a few fields, notably European languages and literatures. Larger, higher status, and historically liberal arts oriented institutions were less likely to dr...

Conventional sociological accounts of the rise and fall of academic fields have been challenged by accounts based on the idea of market-responsive change. In this article, we focus on the period 1980—2000, the period during which, according to its proponents, the market model of change became dominant in academe. We find changes in the student mark...

Many observers of U.S. undergraduate education consider it to be under-performing. In this paper I discuss the evidence underlying these assessments. I emphasize institutional and disciplinary differences in the academic experiences of students. I develop a new typology of student orientations based on combinations of students’ attitudes about the...

Using data from the 2008 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey, we show that study time and academic conscientiousness were lower among students in humanities and social science majors than among students in science and engineering majors. Analytical and critical thinking experiences were no more evident among humanities and soci...

This chapter surveys the economic, work, and lifestyle habits of the "professional-managerial" class-those strata of citizens who have traditionally been thrift's most consistent and enthusiastic boosters. Evidence resists the popular impression (and caricature by social critics) that this group is today among the most consumerist of Americans. It...

This paper investigates the characteristics of US colleges and universities that were early adopters of post-1970 academic growth fields. It examines hypotheses drawn from four analytical perspectives on sources of organizational change: organizational ecology, inter-institutional stratification, demographic composition, and historical traditions....

Acentral paradox of contemporary political life in the United States is that white evangelical Protestants have expressed a wide variety of views on social and policy issues, including moderate to liberal views on many issues involving inequalities in American society, yet have proven to be a dependable partner in the Republican coalition for more...

By the end of the nineteenth century, the vast majority of U.S. churches were evangelical in outlook and practice. America's turn toward modernism and embrace of science in the early twentieth century threatened evangelicalism's cultural prominence. But as confidence in modern secularism wavered in the 1960s and 1970s, evangelicalism had another gr...

Background/Context Previous research has established the significance of academic study time on undergraduate students’ academic performance. The effects of other uses of time are, however, in dispute. Some researchers have argued that students involved in activities that require initiative and effort also perform better in class, while students wh...

Five competing explanations for why white evangelicals hold right-of-center political attitudes are examined using data from the 2000–2004 National Election Studies. Dependent variables include attitudes about abortion, homosexuality, immigration, national defense, and social spending. The five competing explanations accounting for conservative pos...

The number of interdisciplinary, degree-granting fields in American colleges and universities has grown rapidly, with socially incorporative programs (women’s studies, ethnic studies, and non-Western area studies) accounting for a large share. These fields have diffused widely over time, while other interdisciplinary fields have not. Variables ba...

This paper traces the history of two reform movements organized more than two decades ago to improve teaching and learning in U.S. colleges and universities: the teaching reform movement, led by the liberal philanthropies, and the accountability movement, led by the states and, later, the regional accreditors. The paper concludes that the teaching...

: Analysis of college catalogs from 292 four-year colleges and universities over a 25-year period revealed four popular models of general education: “core distribution areas,” “traditional liberal arts,” “cultures and ethics,” and “civic/utilitarian.” During the period more general education courses were required and the number of r...

Max Weber's Methodology: The Unification of the Cultural and Social Sciences. By RingerFritz. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1997. Pp. ix + 188. $35.00. ISBN 0-674-55657-7. - Volume 32 Issue 3 - Steven Brint

Using data on upper-division students in the University of California system, we show that two distinct cultures of engagement exist on campus. The culture of engagement in the arts, humanities and social sciences focuses on interaction, participation, and interest in ideas. The culture of engagement in the natural sciences and engineering focuses...

Class attendance and out-of-class study time are known to be strongly associated with academic engagement and college GPA. The paper examines two other uses of time as influences on academic outcomes: those devoted to active engagements with friends and community as opposed to passive entertainments, and those that connect students to campus life r...

This article introduces cluster analysis and reference set analysis as tools for understanding structure, identity, and aspiration in complex organizational fields. Cluster analysis is used to identify the structure of the organizational field in American four-year colleges and universities. The article shows that presidential choices of reference...

Many leaders of public research universities worry about falling behind private research universities at a time when private university finances have improved dramatically and state support for higher education has declined. In this paper, I provide grounds for a more optimistic view of the competitive position of public research universities. I de...

This paper assesses the causes and consequences of recent American efforts to configure the research university as an engine of economic and social change. Drawing upon interviews and strategic plans, the paper describes recent policies to encourage interdisciplinary creativity, in a context of increasing income from private gifts and endowments.

The shift from arts and sciences to occupational-professional degrees has been one of the most important trends in undergraduate education over the last three decades. This study shows that the shift toward occupational-professional degrees began around 1930 with a short-lived movement back toward the arts and sciences in the 1960s. It also shows t...

Following landmark legislation passed more than 20 years ago, university–industry relationships have now become central to understanding the changing role of research universities in American Society. The paper analyzes the development of university–industry partnerships during the 1990s. Past studies have used a broad array of measures of ties and...

Foundation (NSF- SES-0086423-002) supported the research reported in this paper. In this paper, we introduce presidential reference sets as a tool for understanding issues of identity, cultural division, and aspiration in higher education. The analysis yields four key findings. First, we show that several well-known and widely used classifications...

In the 1960s and 1970s, political events and polling data indicated a significant rise in liberal and dissenting political attitudes among American professionals. These data seem to run counter to the historically typical connection between social privilege and conservative politics. The major purpose of this paper is to provide a descriptive portr...

Based on new data and new analytical frameworks, this book assesses the forces of change at play in the development of American universities and their prospects for the future. ---------- Steven Brint is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author, most recently, of Schools and Societies. ---------- Based on...

In recent years, three schools of thought-human capital economics, sociological contradictions theory, and the new structuralism-have contributed to discussions of the role of community colleges in American postsecondary education. An evaluation of this work suggests that the circumstances of community colleges have, in several respects, changed fo...

The market for online courses and degrees has continued to grow in recent years in spite of an overall slowdown in the growth of Internet-related industries. Who will control the new market for online courses and degrees - universities or corporations, or will a division of labor emerge between the two? What are the advantages of universities and c...

Higher education is a mixed sector It includes many public institutions as well as many independent colleges and universities. It also includes some for-profit enterprises. Data resources for the study of higher education are generally very good. This is particularly true for studies of students, faculty, institutional quality, and financial resour...

Higher education is a mixed sector It includes many public institutions as well as many inde pendent colleges and universities. It also includes some for-profit enterprises. Data resources for the study of higher education are generally very good. This is particularly true for studies of students, faculty, institutional quality, and financial resou...

Discussions of the research process, even when they focus on histories of research projects rather than on formal methods, do not sufficiently emphasize the personal qualities, skills, and associations that make for excellence in research. In this essay, which is intended for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students, I use examples o...

Using the tools of organizational analysis, this article presents a framework for understanding the volume and content of socialization messages expressed in 64 primary school classrooms. This framework specifies five levels of classroom and school organization in which socialization messages are embedded. It links the behavioral ideals expressed a...

This article argues that four distinct streams of thought flow into current conceptions of the knowledge economy. Drawing on these four streams of thought and on labor force data from the USA, the article develops a synthetic view of the knowledge economy. The analysis suggests that the knowledge economy, while of growing importance, remains smalle...

Community remains a potent symbol and aspiration in political and intellectual life. However, it has largely passed out of sociological analysis. The paper shows why this has occurred, and it develops a new typology that can make the concept useful again in sociology. The new typology is based on identifying structurally distinct subtypes of commun...

This article discusses three major contributions of Eliot Freidson to the sociology of professions: (a) Freidson's work introduces a new concept of the professions rooted in the social organization of labor markets. This concept is far more harmonious with the contemporary situation of professions than any previous effort to conceptualize the diffe...

Las profesiones y los profesionales están diferenciados en sus posiciones en el mercado y en sus posiciones de poder. Este artículo discutirá las razones que hacen que algunas profesiones y algunos profesionales estén mejor situados en el mercado y mejor pagados que otros. Argumento que las fuentes principales de valor y poder en el mercado son la...

Die «community colleges» und die Politik der Ungleichheit. Das amerikanische junior oder community college (zwei-jährige Ausbildung), dessen Gründung Anfang des Jahrhunderts den Einstieg in Langzeitstudiengänge im Hochschulbereich (vier Jahre) ermöglichen sollte, hat sich in den letzten zwanzig Jahren in eine Institution für berufliche Kurzausbildu...

Guided by a vision of an ideal educational system that is dedicated to the cultivation of a democratic citizenry, this monograph explores a number of questions about the growth and recent transformation of American junior colleges from liberal arts transfer institutions to providers of terminal vocational training. Chapter 1 examines the role of co...

This paper first surveys the four principal positions in the debate about the policy influence of professional experts — technocracy, extensive mandates, limited mandates, and servants of power — and finds none entirely satisfactory. While the limited mandates position is the best general characterization of the policy influence of experts, many in...

This article examines American education in comparative perspective, suggesting that the distinctive structure of the school system is both an embodiment and a source of the felt fluidity of class boundaries in the United States. Several characteristic features of the American educational system are identified: the avoidance of early selection, the...

Acknowledges the contributions of community colleges to the expansion of access to higher education, yet concludes that two-year colleges, especially since vocational education gained curricular predominance, have accentuated existing patterns of social inequality. Advocates the revitalization of transfer programs and the fostering of public rather...

An atmosphere of amiable routine now surrounds North Shore Community College in the Boston suburb of Beverly. Still located on a main downtown thorough-fare, as it has been since it opened in 1965, the college serves an economically varied region, including both the affluent oceanside towns of Marblehead, Swampscott, and Gloucester to the north and...

Since its origins at the turn of the century, the junior college has had a complex, and at times uneasy, relationship with a public that has looked to the educational system as a vehicle for the realization of the American dream. Despite its self-portrayal as “democracy’s college” and its often heroic efforts to extend education to the masses, the...

In the twentieth century, Americans have increasingly looked to the schools--and, in particular, to the nation's colleges and universities--as guardians of the cherished national ideal of equality of opportunity. With the best jobs increasingly monopolized by those with higher education, the opportunity to attend college has become an integral part...

At the end of World War II, a sense of expectancy pervaded America’s colleges and universities. Enrollments had dropped during the war years, and many institutions looked forward to the return of millions of veterans. These veterans were themselves eager to get ahead in civilian life after the hardships of war, and the nation was eager to reward th...