Robert M Zemsky
Founding Director
Faculty Assistant to the President
Master of College Hill House
Professor
Professor
Education:
BA
Whittier College, 1962.
PhD (History)
Yale University, 1966.
Permanent linkBA
Whittier College, 1962.
PhD (History)
Yale University, 1966.
Description of Research Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Higher education policy and reform
Missions and markets of higher education
College choice
Professional Biography
Dr. Zemsky was the founding director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Research on Higher Education. The research for which he is best known has centered on how colleges and universities, in a world increasingly dominated by market forces, can be both mission-centered and market-smart. His writings have regularly appeared in Policy Perspectives and in a series of pioneering articles and analyses in Change.
Within the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Zemsky has served as the University’s chief planning officer and as master of Hill College House. He currently serves as chair of The Learning Alliance for Higher Education, a major experiment in bringing just-in-time strategic expertise to college and university presidents.
In 1998, Change named him as one of higher education’s top 40 leaders for his role as an agenda-setter. He is a former Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He was a postdoctoral Social Science Research Council Fellow in Linguistics and was later chair of that Council’s Committee on Social Science Personnel. In 1998, he received a Doctor of Humane Letters (Hon.) from Towson University.
Selected Publications
Zemsky, R.: Making Reform Work. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009.Zemsky, R.: The Rain Man cometh - again. Academy of Management Perspective 22(1), 2008.
Zemsky, R.: Has our reach exceeded our grasp? Taking a second look at higher education as a global enterprise. The Globalization of Higher Education. L. E. Weber & J. J. Dunderstadt (eds.). London: Economica, Ltd. 2008.
Zemsky, R., Wegner, G. R., & Massy, W. P.: Remaking the American University: Market-smart and Mission-centered Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005.
Zemsky, R., & Massy, W.: Thwarted Innovation: What Happened to e-learning and Why The Learning Alliance 2004.
Zemsky, R., Shaman, S., & Shapiro, D.: Higher Education as Competitive Enterprise: When Markets Matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002.
Zemsky, R., Shapiro, D., Iannozzi, M., Cappelli, P., & Bailey, T.: The Transition from Initial Education to Working Life in the United States of America. NCPI Project Paper #1 1998.
Zemsky, R.: Structure and Coherence. Association of American Colleges and Universities, 1989.
Zemsky, R., Johnston, J., & Shaman, S.: Unfinished Design. Association of American Colleges and Universities, 1988.
Zemsky, R., & Meyerson, M.: Training Practices: Education and Training Within the American Firm. Report to the National Institute of Education, 1985.