Towards the Virtuous University The Moral Bases of Academic Practice [Paperback]

A good university is invariably assumed to be one which is managerially effective in terms of its economic efficiency, and is judged in terms of entrepreneurialism, self-promotion and competitive innovation. This book argues that in the majority of institutions, these goals are being pursued to the exclusion of academic excellence and public service. It proposes that there is a marked lack of intellectual leadership at senior management level within HE institutions and that academic workers must assume responsibility for the moral purposefulness of their institutions. This will not be a retreat into the old values of an elitist 'ivory tower', but a rejection of the current deeply stratified university system which prematurely selects students for differentiated institutional streams.

List of figures

Preface and acknowledgements

Chapter 1 Universities as civic spaces

• The structure of the book
• Troubled times
• Civic spaces, civic leadership
• Academic professionalism: a changing profession
• Conclusion

Chapter 2 Universities as places of learning

• Stratification, fractionalisation and atomisation
• Management, money and marketing!
• Change from the inside-out
• Academic professionalism: a learning profession
• Conclusion

Chapter 3 Universities as deliberative spaces

• A failure of nerve
• Reclaiming a sense of purpose
• Whose freedom? Whose spaces?
• Academic professionalism: a profession of values

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