The university in the 1980s: An anachronism?

The purposes of universities as traditionally defined and as specified in both the Carnegie Commission in the USA and the Loi d'Orientation de l'Enseignement Supérieur of 1968 in France, are considered in the context of the profound changes which have occurred in western industrialized societies in recent decades. Some of these changes may make it more difficult for universities to fulfull properly such traditional purposes as providing an independent critique of society's evolution, asking questions about the ways in which moral, material and technological problems are handled and the maintenance of that spirit of free enquiry which is an essential part of human freedom.This paper derives from an address given to Education Section L of the British Association meeting at the University of Lancaster in September 1976.