At the turn of the 21st century, research universities are increasingly seeking funds in the private sector through grants, contracts, industry-university partnerships, and commercialization of research (academic capitalism). As industry-academia partnerships grow, cultural tensions are likely to occur as the result of fundamental differences between business and academic values. Given that graduate school provides anticipatory socialization to the academic profession, this trend leads to important questions about the changing nature of these professions, including: How are graduate students coping with conflictive cultural messages as they are socialized in environments where both industry and academia coexist? The purpose of this study is to focus on the socialization of graduate students to investigate the effects of academic capitalism on the anticipatory socialization to the academic profession. The overall methodology is a case study of an academic department engaged with high levels of academic capitalism and the main sources of evidence are doctoral students. Ethnographic interviewing and analysis was used to obtain the participants' cultural domains of knowledge around academic capitalism. Given previous studies, a remarkable finding of this work is that the majority of the students could not see any negative effects of industrial funding and are very satisfied with the opportunities that it offers to enrich their training. Leaving behind the dichotomy of business versus academic values, these students see partnerships with industry as a way to achieve the traditional outcomes of the academic profession. The cultural knowledge that these students might bring to their entering institutions reflects an integration of traditional academic values with new perspectives brought by academic capitalism. This study reinforces a utilitarian perspective in which industry, government and academia associate in productive collaborations to generate knowledge, transfer technology to society, and educate the future generation of scientists. However, more studies are needed in departments with different levels of funding and prestige in order to determine the extent of the implications of academic capitalism across different academic contexts.

This study is an interdisciplinary inquiry into university student culture in the People's Republic of China with a focus on formal organizations and informal social relations. The purpose of the study is to examine the characteristics of student organizations and networks on campuses and to determine how students participate in and evaluate these organizations. Literature on college student culture and higher education in China is reviewed as a basis for the study. The author's study of Chinese society and prior experiences teaching at Chinese universities further guided the research. The research employed three major types of data collection: participant observation on three campuses in an urban area in western China in 1990, interviews in the United States with Chinese university graduates, and document research. Three types of formal organization were studied: academic divisions by department, grade, and classroom; mass organizations--the Student Association and the Communist Youth League; and a political organization--the Communist Party. Informal groups included networks based on former schoolmate and hometown ties, student societies and clubs, and male-female couples. Classroom groups were found to be the most important reference group for most students. These groups and the related dormitory groups were important both academically and socially. The Student Association and Communist Youth League were found to have limited influence on the majority of students who were passive members. The Communist Party was found to have some indirect influence on students, but only a small percentage of students were recruited as members. The dominant characteristics of the formal groups were their rigid hierarchies and the division between those who held positions and the majority of students who tended to remain uninvolved. The study found informal groups and networks to be active and the preferred mode of interaction for most students. These groups bridged the academic divisions and had fluid, loose structures with little or no hierarchy. During the 1980's, many types of informal groups developed in number and in popularity as students became more involved in extracurricular activities such as part-time work, business, and love affairs.

This qualitative study investigated how alcohol policy education and enforcement influenced student drinking behavior and norms at a large state university. Data collection consisted of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with sixteen traditional-age freshmen and sophomores who lived in two different campus residential areas. One purpose of this study was to gain insight into the actual drinking practices of students who reside in campus residence halls while another focus was to determine how policy education and enforcement influenced students' decisions to drink. The study participants, who served as "informants" for the purpose of the research, were also asked how they made sense of the situation. The findings suggest emergent themes related to the high incidence of student drinking in the residence halls, the lack of University-sponsored education and enforcement of the alcohol policy, and the manner in which the students' developmental stage influenced their drinking behaviors. In their observations, students talked about a "If we don't see it, hear it, or smell it" enforcement policy and openly criticized the University for its hypocritical stance. Students also revealed strong feelings of disappointment and remorse because their residence hall drinking had negatively impacted their academic standings and their overall well-being. The data suggest that the lack of policy education and enforcement creates an environmental press that encourages student drinking and actually impedes student development. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings and suggestions for future research.

In response to changing social, political and economic realities in their own societies, many universities and colleges in the developing countries are departing significantly from a philosophy which strictly adheres to traditional academic, familiar and basic functions of teaching and research, and are moving towards a more utilitarian role; several of these institutions have made the adage: 'take the college out to the community and bring the community into the college', an implicit part of their working philosophy. By 'community', they mean the vast majority of people living in the rural countryside. However, the task of understanding this emerging role is complex, and past efforts have met with increasing frustrations. Observers in education and development in the developing countries are now asking the question: What are the factors which characterize a successful relationship between higher educational institutions and the process and practice of rural development? The purpose of this research study is to examine, by a case study approach, the rural development activities of a number of higher learning institutions in India, using an analytical framework based on an intensive research of theories and practice of education and development. This is further supplemented by a series of actual field interviews and discussions with staff/faculty, and students of more than six educational institutions in India, two of which were finally selected for the purpose of specific and detailed analysis. The analytical framework consists of major concepts, processes, roles, and linkages underlying the institution's philosophy, goals and objectives, staff and student participation, rural people participation, relationship with government agencies including the political apparatus, methodologies including program planning and implementation, integration of functions (research, teaching and community service), and internal organization and administration. Using this framework, the study identifies the major constraints and implications underlying well-meaning university efforts in rural development. New perceptions and insights derived from the analysis are further proposed as generalizations for the benefits of educational planners, researchers, policy makers, university administrators, staff and faculty.