Introduction: higher education and the contributions problem

The multiple contributions of higher education pose a challenging problem for both policy makers and scholars. There are no commonly agreed definitions and measures and the discussion is plagued by simplifications of a complex emergent reality. For example, policy makers often work with a narrow and reified notion of higher education as individual pecuniary benefits, coupled with limited public good spill-overs from the higher education ‘market’. This business model of higher education, familiar to policy economists, obscures much of the real work of the sector in student learning and development, and in relation to knowledge, thereby leading to under-estimation of most of its impacts in the economy, society, polity and culture. Assessing the contributions of higher education broadens the discussion by examining different facets of higher education and its social connections, and tackles the conceptual and empirical challenges in devising an approach both rigorous and comprehensive. This introductory chapter sets out the chapters of the book that follow.