In Universities at Risk, a group of leading scholars in education, ethics, politics and medicine, among other areas, probe the forces that are threatening the integrity of post-secondary education, from both within and without.

This book delves into the subject of corporate sponsorship, exploring the influences of powerful industries -- tobacco and pharmaceutical companies, for example. The book also discusses the struggle for credibility and threat to free inquiry when special interest groups, right-wing think tanks, and discredited popular movements (such as intelligent design) infiltrate academia. Chapters on the middle eastern studies and First Nations universities look at external politics that inhibit intellectual freedom. The more insidious trends toward corporatization and "managerializing" the university also come under scrutiny.

This timely book concludes with a discussion about why preserving academic integrity -- despite the clamorous voices of the forces threatening it --is so vital to public interest.

Contributors include:
Brian Alters
Gary Bauslaugh
Mary Burgan
Joanna Cohen
Rosemary Deem
Shadia Drury
Brenda Gallie
Donald Gutstein
Marcus Harvey
David Healy
Michael Higgins
Sheldon Krimsky
Kevin Mattson
Arthur Schafer
Blair Stonechild
Jon Thompson
Pat Walden

JAMES TURK is Executive Director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). Formerly an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and Director of Education for the Ontario Federation of Labour, he is a frequent media contributor and has written many articles on education and labour in Canada. His two most recent books are Free Speech in Fearful Times: After 9/11 in Canada, the U.S., Australia and Europe (edited with Allan Manson) and Disciplining Dissent: The Curbing of Free Expression in Academia and the Media (edited with William Bruneau).

James Turk's profile page

"the range of material in Universities at Risk provides disturbing food for thought for anyone associated with colleges and universities in Canada and elsewhere... Universities at Risk correctly identifies and diagnoses many of the threats currently facing post-secondary institutions"

TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies

"The distinguished contributors to this book examine the subject of corporate sponsorship, exploring the influences of powerful industries such as tobacco and pharmaceutical companies........This timely book concludes with a discussion about why preserving academic integrity -- despite the clamorous voices of the forces threatening it -- is so vital to public interest."

Canadian Association of University Teachers