James E. Côté is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. His research explores the sociology of higher education, youth, and identity formation. He is the co-author of Lowering Higher Education: The Rise of Corporate Universities and the Fall of Liberal Education (University of Toronto Press, 2011) and Ivory Tower Blues: A University System in Crisis (University of Toronto Press, 2007). His other recent books include Youth Development in Identity Societies (Routledge, 2018); Identity Formation, Youth and Development: A Simplified Approach (co-authored with Charles G. Levine, Psychology Press, 2015); and Youth Studies: Fundamental Issues and Debates (Red Globe Press, 2014). He is also the founding editor of Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research and is currently an associate editor on the Journal of Adolescence. He has also served as president of the Society for Research on Identity Formation (SRIF) and as president of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on the Sociology of Youth.

Sarah Pickard is a senior lecturer in British politics and society and researcher in youth studies at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France. Her research uses a holistic approach to explore issues affecting young people, including political participation, student activism, and education. She is the author of Politics, Protest and Young People: Political Participation and Dissent in 21st Century Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. She is also the editor of Higher Education in the UK and the US: Converging University Models in a Global Academic World? (Brill, 2014) and Anti-Social Behaviour in Britain: Victorian and Contemporary Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and co-editor of When Students Protest (three volumes, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and Young People Re-Generating Politics in Times of Crises (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). She is a convenor for the Political Studies Association specialist group Young People's Politics and a vice president of the International Sociological Association Research Committee on the Sociology of Youth.

1. The history and scope of the sociology of higher education Section 1: Anglo-American Higher-Education Institutions through Time and Place 2. The university and society: Structural change and conflicting roles 3. Higher-education phases and missions over time in Anglo-American institutions 4. Maintaining status in new times: The continuing stratification of Anglo-American universities 5. The evolving character of the US public research university: Critical organizational shifts in neoliberal context Section 2: Life in Higher-Education Institutions for Students and Faculty 6. From in loco parentis to consumer choice: Examining the changing relationship between students and higher-education institutions in the United States 7. The McDonaldization of higher education updated: The therapeutic turn 8. After the neoliberal university: Student voice and protest 9. The vicious circle of academic insecurity and privatization in Western universities 10. The digital revolution in higher education: Rhetoric and reality 11, Peer relations and friendship among postsecondary students Section 3: Inequality and Diversity in Higher Education 12. Theories of the sociology of higher-education access and participation 13. The barriers to access in higher education and their alleviation 14. Working-class students in UK higher education: Still the elephant in the room 15. The American working-class student experience: Swimming upstream 16. Moving towards more holistic assessment: Selective admissions in the US and England at the brink of the 2020s 17. At-risk and unprepared students in American higher education: The impact on institutions and strategies to address the new student body landscape 18. Higher education, social mobility, and unequal outcomes in the United States: A brief history Section 4: Anglo-American Systems Contrasted 19. Invoking Humboldt: The German model of higher education 20. Massification, marketization, vocationalization, and stratification in Russian higher education 21. Exchanging tyrannies: The impact of the neoliberalization of higher education on academics' work life in a post-Soviet country 22. Higher education in France: Massification, social reproduction, and social stratification 23. The Nordic model of higher education from a comparative and historical perspective 24. Higher education and social change in South Asia: From intellectual elitism to equality of opportunity 25. Convergent and divergent trends of internationalization: A comparative perspective between Japanese and Anglo-American universities 26. Revisiting the discourse of a Chinese model of the university: A Confucian-Legalist legacy impact perspective Section 5: Higher Education in a Global Policy Perspective 27. Higher education, credentialism, and social mobility 28. Internationalization of higher-education institutions: Challenges and opportunities 29. A sociological analysis of the flows of human capital and knowledge in higher-education partnerships 30. The massification of higher-education systems in Brazil and China: Institutional models and students' experiences 31. Gender equality and inequality in global higher education in the neoliberal era 32. Neo-institutional approaches to understanding how higher education transforms society and the world of work