Universities : The Recovery of an Idea 2008

Research assessment exercises, teaching quality assessment, line management, staff appraisal, student course evaluation, modularization, student fees - these are all names of innovations (and problems) - in modern British universities. How far do they reflect a more conscientious approach to the effective promotion of higher education, and how far do they constitute a significant departure form traditional academic concerns and values? Using some themes of Cardinal Newman's classic The Idea of a University as a springboard, this extended essay aims to address these questions. It is not an educational manifesto - of right or left - but an attempt to set the questions confronting the modern British university in a wider historical and philosophical context, and to engage in thought about these important issues that is both critical and positive. The author is Professor of Philosophy and the Arts at Princeton Theological Seminary. Book jacket.