Vico, Imagination and Education

This paper explores the contribution of Vico's philosophy of imagination to a practical recognition of the importance of the imagination in the conduct of human affairs in general and in education in particular. Vico's claim that the imagination is an essential component of our human nature together with the claim that all human knowledge ultimately has its origins in the imaginative activities of our forebears (a claim which has received empirical support from recent research on the history of oral cultures) provides us with the necessary philosophical basis for establishing a logical connection between imagination and education. If accepted, such a perspective would, in my view, dispel much of the skepticism that still surrounds the role of the imagination in contemporary education.     

Fissures in the Federal Structure? The Case of the University of Wales

The paper describes the evolution of the University of Wales, and describes the attempts made at the end of the 1980s to instigate university-wide planning. These arrangements were, however, of short duration and have recently been reviewed and revised. A degree of tension and instability is endemic in all federations and 'Wales' is no exception. Its large colleges are impatient of central control and planning, and the Welsh Funding Council is unsympathetic to an increase in the sphere of influence of the federal university. Such factors are fissiparous forces, but they have to be set against the symbolic importance of the University of Wales as a means of representing and giving expression to Welsh national feeling.