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The final chapter of the volume is a thought-provoking piece by Muckle in which he re-
visits the main question of whether educational reform in post-Soviet Russia has been suc-
cessful. In his very engaging storytelling style and drawing on his first hand experiences of
Soviet school visits and classroom observations he vividly draws a picture of education in
Russia as it was at the time of the Soviet Union collapse and asks how much of this picture
survives in the new Russia. Undoubtedly change has been slow and difficult. My own
research into Russian higher education reform supports some of the arguments put forward
by Muckle. What I saw in the 1990s and early 2000s were mainly cosmetic and superficial
reforms, achieved by creating new and renaming old institutions, programmes and courses
but leaving the old system’s fundamental structures intact. Although the survival and expan-
sion of the Russian education system in the 1990s could be considered as achievements in
themselves, they failed to mitigate the overall dismal picture of largely failed attempts at edu-
cation reform. Thus, it would be interesting to establish the extent to which real change has
permeated universities and schools since 2000.
Overall, the collection of chapters in this book is very diverse and eclectic and despite
some of its apparent shortcomings it is a welcome addition to the body of research on Rus-
sian education and would be useful to all those interested in Russian education system as
well as in comparative education more broadly.
Reference
West, A., P. Noden, A. Edge, M. David, and J. Davies. 1998. Choices and expectations at primary and
secondary stages in the state and private sectors. Educational Studies 24, no. 1: 45–60.
Georgy Petrov
Kingston University, London, UK
g.petrov@kingston.ac.uk
ª2011, Georgy Petrov
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14748460.2011.616333
Managing successful universities, second edition, by M. Shattock, Maidenhead, Open
University Press, 2010, 296 pp., £28.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-335-23743-2
The problem, just now, for any author attempting to produce or update a text on higher
education management in the UK is that no sooner has it gone to press than it is out of
date. Such is the uncertainty in government circles about HE fees and funding, seemingly at
what to do as well as how to do it, that it is impossible to predict what the sector will be
like next year, let alone within the next five.
Of course, there are those who will argue, Mike Shattock among them, that we have
been here before, with successive reviews of English higher education contributing to funda-
mental changes in the landscape. Or that what we are now seeing is just another stage in a
cumulative process which seeks to shift the burden of cost from the state towards those it
claims are the key beneficiaries from the investment (although, personally, I am quite glad
that we do not have to rely on an individual’s willingness to become indebted in order that
we have doctors, teachers, engineers – possibly even lawyers).
In the second edition of Managing successful universities, Michael Shattock successfully
manages to avoid the trap of immediate out-datedness by giving more space to ‘the
consequences of managing retrenchment and the importance of developing new sources of
356 Book reviews
funding’ (x) in recognition of the uncertain economic climate. In his introduction he
addresses the question of what a successful university is but I wonder, just wonder, if a
more relevant question now is what is a university. As Ron Barnett puts it:
What is it to be a university? Are there forms of ‘university’ that are emerging and which should
attract our concern? Are there kinds of ‘university’ that we can barely glimpse and that we might
favour, that we might even encourage? (Barnett 2011, 1)
This is important because success is inextricably linked to purpose. One has to be suc-
cessful at something – at teaching or research, at engaging with community, at delivering
value for money. In a recent UCU survey of institutional financial viability, success might be
seen in terms just of survival. Shattock acknowledges this, again with an eye to unknown
futures when he points out that ‘Our list of the most successful universities may prove to
be as fragile as the companies cited in so many business texts’ (26). Nonetheless, we can
mitigate the impacts of funding and economic vicissitudes if we focus on effective and appro-
priate management which is at the core of this text.
The first edition of Managing successful universities is well-known to students and gradu-
ates of the MBA in higher education management at London University’s Institute of Educa-
tion, where Shattock is visiting professor. Another, former, stalwart of the course team is
David Watson whose stricture ‘get the money right and everything else will follow’ caused
me to turn first to the chapter on university finance. Here Shattock highlights five principles
of successful financial management, the first of which is that ‘financial stability makes a key
contribution to successful academic work’ (52). He goes on to say that ‘Nothing can be so
destructive of academic time, the ability to innovate, or the maintenance of good morale as a finan-
cial crisis’ (52). How prophetic – but in fact these five principles also appear in the earlier
edition, as does much of this chapter. Apart from some minor updates, the most significant
change here is the addition of a section under private sector markets on ‘Fees for home and
EU undergraduate students’(56). Here the understated suggestion that ‘Decisions surround-
ing higher fee levels have the potential to redefine the UK higher education system’ (57)
gave rise to a wry smile. There is also an unsurprising expansion of the section under fund-
raising and endowment income.
It is perhaps tempting to be critical that such a respected authority on the history of
university funding and governance did not devote more space to the possible changes to
higher education funding but, in fairness, who could have predicted such an enormous
sea–change? The prevailing view in 2009 and early 2010 was that if the fee cap were to
be lifted it would be to a new ceiling of around £7000 and the major cuts to teaching
grant were never seriously predicted until the emergency budget and comprehensive
spending review of autumn 2010. To wait for clearer signs would have been to no avail –
at the time of writing there is still no sign of the White Paper, expected in winter 2010.
As one whose own recent publication was hit by the same levels of uncertainty, I can only
express sympathy and solidarity.
So what else has changed since the first edition? In fact other than an additional chapter
on ‘Managing the core business’ and a very timely addition of ‘managing retrenchment’ to
the chapter on ‘Turning round failure or arresting decline’ most of the change has been of
an updating nature. And, indeed, there is no reason why Shattock should have done much
else as the text is still as relevant, well written and useable as in the original. His advice on
retrenchment is a case in point. He advocates such common sense approaches as ensuring
that necessary budget reductions do not conflict with strategic objectives and that reduc-
tions should be applied selectively rather than by salami slicing, which may cut costs but can
London Review of Education 357
weaken the institution. The advice in these pages would be well taken by vice-chancellors
and finance directors in England, just now.
The additional material on managing the core business focuses on teaching and research,
elements which were implicit in the first edition but made more transparent here and given
greater centrality, albeit rather briefly. The role of QAA and the RAE/REF are highlighted
but lest the reader fears a recommendation to embrace additional bureaucracy the author
warns us in typical outspoken style that ‘In too many university central offices there is a ten-
dency to take on a jehadist [sic] view of QAA principles and seek to enforce them unques-
tionably on academic colleagues’ (109).
It is this continuous questioning of context, accompanied by guidance on how to achieve,
maintain and enhance success that makes this book such a readable and convincing bible for
university managers – indeed, for anyone who has an interest in the continued success of
universities at a time when their very raison d’etre is coming under such sustained attack.
Reference
Barnett, R. 2011. Being a university. Abingdon: Routledge.
Liz Marr
Open University, UK
e.a.marr@open.ac.uk
ª2011, Liz Marr
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14748460.2011.616335
The Sage handbook of workplace learning, edited by Margaret Malloch, Len Cairns,
Karen Evans and Bridget N. O’Connor, London, Sage, 2011, 476 pp., £90 (hardback), ISBN
978-1-84787-589-1
This handbook claims to provide a ‘state-of-the-art overview of the field of workplace learn-
ing internationally’ (xv). Moreover it aims to serve as a basic resource for researchers and
‘serious academics’ who are interested in this burgeoning topic. These are bold claims
indeed, and ones that are largely justified by the extensive list of contributors (46 in total)
that are marshalled into 34 chapters. With editors from Australia, England and the US many
of the contributions originate from these countries, although this tendency is offset by indi-
vidual contributions from elsewhere including the Nordic countries, Germany, Korea and
Canada and a case study of Ethiopia. Whilst the growing importance of the economies of
China and India are alluded to in some chapters the limited research available in these con-
texts means there are perhaps limits on the ‘international’ purchase claimed.
Given the breadth and ambition of the handbook some structure is needed and the edi-
tors have grouped the chapters into three sections: theory, research and practice, issues and
futures. In practice some chapters span these divisions of course. Each section is introduced
by a brief summary of the contributions to follow, a helpful device given the extent of the vol-
ume. Cairns and Malloch’s chapter opens the theory section by examining the scope of ‘work’
‘place’ and ‘learning’, arguing for a shift towards broader and more inclusive meanings,
encompassing unpaid work in the home and community and spiritual or virtual spaces. An
impressive array of chapters follow led by Paul Hager’s overview of psychological and socio-
cultural theories of learning, and emerging postmodern takes on workplace learning; where
he surprisingly perhaps locates Engestro
¨m’s cultural historical activity theory. Contributions
358 Book reviews
