The debate over higher education is hopelessly skewed. The different parties - government, academics, institutional managers, employers, funding agencies and political groupings - press their concerns forward. But the resulting talk, of efficiency, research, access and the needs of industry, simply defends the interests of the various groups. In all this, the idea of higher education as standing for intrinsically worthwhile ends is lost.
This debate overlies a profound dual problem facing Western higher education. The idea of objective knowledge is under attack and, because of its role in the post-industrial society, the autonomy of higher education is in question. These two issues – epistemological and sociological - amount to a double undermining of higher education.
The Idea of Higher Education identifies the intrinsic worth of higher education, and it argues that we should put into practice a new conception of liberal education. The educational experience of the student as an independent and critical learner takes centre stage, connecting with the sense of higher education as a liberating process.
This book provides the first comprehensive account of 'higher education'. It contends against many beliefs of our age, including those of the instrumentalists, the Marxists, the liberals, and the academic community itself. And, drawing on critical theory, it shows how the idea of higher education, reinstated, can be a force for a more open society.