Function and Survival in British Universities

Function and Survival IEric Ashby in British Universities Napoleon, who died only 134 years ago, could cross the Alps no faster than Hannibal crossed them. Today you can comfortably have breakfast in Paris and lunch in Rome. Gladstone, who died only 57 years ago, could not reach more people with his voice than Demosthenes could. Today a prime minister's voice can be heard in the homes of millions; millions can even watch him smile and blow his nose. The rate of change in the last hundred years is of a different order from that of previous centuries. The changes are not merely advances in technology: they are unprecedented social upheavals. Amid these upheavals stand certain ancient and cherished institutions: churches, parliaments, universities. Will they survive? Have they a function in the new world? On the face of it there seems to be no doubt that universities in Britain will survive. They are more generously financed than ever before in their history. Their graduates are in great demand. Some of their faculties are being pressed to increase the intake of students. Their prestige never stood higher. They appear to be on a honeymoon. But inside universities there is less buoyancy than one would expect on a honeymoon. There is an anxious spirit of self-examination among university teachers. When they meet in conference they discuss such topics as "The Crisis in the University," "Success and Failure at the University," "Are Courses of Study Overloaded?" "The Balance of Liberal Education and Specialisation." There are already some who fear that the institution which has been known as "university" for six centuries is on the way out, and that although the word will doubtless survive it will be applied to a totally different institution. This contrast between the superficial prosperity of British universities and their deep-seated misgivings is easy to explain. Educational instituions are not the pace-makers for social change (much as they like to 200 BRITISH UNIVERSITIES 201 think they are); they are drawn along, often reluctantly, in the wake of social change. Modem society needs multitudes of experts. The universities are the most appropriate institutions to supply experts. Accordingly society has offered, and the universities have eagerly accepted, financial support and encouragement to develop and expand. We are very properly proud of the magnanimity with which the taxpayer gives British universities some '£'27,000,000 per annum without even so much as a hint as to how the money should be used. There has in Britain been no suspicion of intervention in university affairs by the state. But inevitably there is intervention in university affairs by society and the consequences of this intervention are ouly just dawning on academic men; that is why some of them are apprehensive, not to say querulous, about the future of universities. For in many minds the word "university " stands for something unique and precious in European society: a leisurely and urbane attitude to scholarship, a release from the obligation to use knowledge for practical ends, a sense of perspective which accompanies the broad horizon and the distant view, an opportunity to give undivided loyalty to the kingdom of the mind. If on the one hand the university fights to preserve these virtues it may find itself without a function in the society 01 tomorrow. II on the other hand it surrenders these virtues it may find itself indeed lunctional, but no longer a university in the traditional sense. It seems that at present we in British universities are in the most awkward stage of this transition. Like Victorian gothic buildings with their narrow spiral staircases, like early motor cars with their brass coach lamps, the universities cling to their traditional organization and curricula in the hope that all they have stood for since medieval times can be preserved among the automatic factories and atomic power stations and social I'lanning of the third millenium A.D. FORM AND FUNCTION IN UNIVERSITIES In social institutions, as in living organisms, form and function are inextricably bound together. II function changes, then form must adapt itself or the organism-and the institution-will perish. Among living organisms it is assumed that the prime function is to...