The Idea of the University ─ A Reader

The Idea of the University, the first book in a set of volumes from Michael A. Peters and Ronald Barnett, provides readings of central texts in the philosophical discourse of the organization and development of the modern research university. Since von Humboldt’s reforms at the University of Berlin in 1810, the early influential model of the university was intended to achieve a unity of teaching and research in providing students with an all-round humanist education. Emerging from German idealist and Romantic philosophy traditions, the Humboldtian university reflected the central importance of philosophy and the notion of academic freedom—the freedom to teach and to learn.

Over the next two hundred years, scholars developed this discourse, so establishing a canon of texts which are presented in this reader: Kant’s The Conflict of the Faculties, Newman’s The Idea of the University, Heidegger’s The Self-Assertion of the German Universities, Jaspers’ The Idea of the University and Ortega y Gasset’s Mission of the University. Also included here are contributions from other major figures such as Sedgwick, Whelwell, Stuart Mill, Arnold, and Leavis from the English tradition; and Hutchins, Clark, Kerr, and Bok, among others, from the American tradition. The collection concludes by presenting writings from Lyotard, Derrida, Bourdieu, MacIntyre, Said, and Readings who were all concerned at the many limitations being imposed by modernity and, in their different ways, held out for an idea of the university built around critical reason.

With a full-length opening essay by the editors and introductory notes on each of the readings and their authors, this volume constitutes a unique text in the literature on higher education and the university.

Michael A. Peters is Professor in the Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research at Waikato University and Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has written some 70 books, is the executive editor of Educational Philosophy and Theory, and was founding editor of several other journals. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ and has honorary doctorates from the State University of New York and the University of Aalborg.

Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at University College London Institute of Education. He received the inaugural Distinguished Scholar Award from the European Association for Institutional Research for his outstanding contributions to higher education research, policy, and practice. His creative concepts and principles are advanced in his many books, including The Idea of Higher Education and a recent trilogy, Being a University, Imagining the University, and Understanding the University.