Universities and Colleges: A Very Short Introduction

What is a university? What is the University? How have universities evolved over the centuries? How might they change over the coming decades as the physical and organisational entity most identified with 'higher education' being delivered to over 250 million students? What will be the impact of digital- and distance-learning, of commercial for-profit new entrants to the higher education market, of government austerity, of globalization, of student consumerism?

Exploring the origins and the concept, the idea and the ideal, of the university, this Very Short Introduction discusses one of the world's oldest, most resilient, and most adaptable institutions. David Palfreyman and Paul Temple consider the links between universities and the economy, and the role of universities within society. Highlighting some of the key questions surrounding the position of universities, they ask how the university can be politically accountable for its taxpayer funding, if it needs to be autonomous to function effectively as a public good. Are professors professional enough in their teaching practices at a time that increasing tuition fees transform students more and more into consumers? And just what does 'academic freedom' for university faculties really entail?

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David Palfreyman, Bursar and Fellow, New College, Oxford, and Paul Temple, Reader Emeritus in Higher Education, UCL Institute of Education

David Palfreyman is the Bursar and a Fellow of New College, University of Oxford. He is also the Director of the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies. David serves as the Honorary Treasurer of and as a Trustee of the Society for Research in Higher Education. He is a co-editor of the Routledge 25-volume series International Studies in Higher Education; and a Member of the Editorial Board of The World of Learning (Routledge). His publications include: Reshaping the University: The Rise of the Regulated Market in Higher Education (with T. Tapper, OUP, 2014); and The Law of Higher Education (with D. Farrington, OUP, 2012).

Paul Temple is Reader Emeritus in Higher Education at the UCL Institute of Education, London, where he was until recently Co-Director of its Centre for Higher Education. His research centres around issues of efficiency and effectiveness in higher education institutions, which has led him to study the physical form of universities and colleges, and how these may affect the academic work of the institutions. Before entering academic life, he worked in university and college planning and finance.