3. bu&TAM R.

CLARK

Development of the Sociology

of Higher Education

My purposes here are to review the development to date of the sociological study of
higher education and, upon that base, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of
current research and to point the prospects for the future. The review is selective and
the assessment biased by personal perception and preference. I would like to err in
being open and catholic, since there are so many ways that sociological study of
colleges and universities can render us more sensitive in coping with immediate
problems as well as contribute to theory and method in sociology. But, in a limited
essay, it is necessary to categorize roughly the work of the past and to highlight the
more salient work. It is also realistic to face the fact of limited talent and resources as
we turn to the future and to emphasize one or two perspectives that might best correct
the defects of our current efforts.

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT

The emergence and substantial growth of a sociology of higher education have

followed from the extensive educational expansion of the period since the end of
World War II especially that of the last decade, in semi-developed and developed
nations around the world. The higher learning became problematic to social analysts
as it became more important to the general population as well as to economic and
governmental elites. The move toward mass participation in higher education has
strained the traditional internal ordering of educational affairs. New demands have
caused great problems of adapting externally to fast-changing sectors of society. The
various demands, new and old, often pull in opposite directions: a dynamic, advanced
economy, fueled by governmental concern about national strength, presses for a
rationalization of training while a highly-volatile culture of youth, fueled by the needs
of the mass media and a youth industry, argues against such technical rationality,
preferReprinted from Sociology of Education. 46 (Winter, 1973). pp. 2-14, by permission of the author and
the American Sociological Association.