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Review
An eloquent and impassioned book (Economist )
Collini is astute, analytical, and often killingly funny (Bevis Hillier Daily Telegraph )
Collini is that rare bird, a don who can be read with pleasure (Michael Barber Tablet, Books of the Year )
One of Britain's finest essayists and writers (Ronan McDonald The Times Higher Education Supplement )
[A] timely lecture for the coalition of dunces ... this is a closely argued defence (Independent on Sunday )
The book is a bit like some university courses. It is erudite, well argued, carefully researched, a fine addition to the debate about the purpose of university education (Scotsman )
[Collini is] stern and splendid in his brief history of the hot debate on useful versus useless knowledge (Fred Inglis Times Higher Education )
It is extremely well written: Collini's prose is lively, well-reasoned and persuasive. The book is a refreshing example of a faculty member engaging with the wider issues of higher education rather than perceiving them through the narrow prism of his own discipline ... a valuable, timely contribution to the discourse (Gerry Wrixon Irish Examiner )
A critique both pointed and witty (Howard Newby Independent )
Collini writes beautifully (Chris Patten Financial Times )
Collini puts his finger on the nub of the problem facing universities. Collini's book is a must-read (Ac Grayling Literary Review )
Collini is astute, analytical, and often killingly funny (Bevis Hillier Daily Telegraph )
Collini is that rare bird, a don who can be read with pleasure (Michael Barber Tablet, Books of the Year )
One of Britain's finest essayists and writers (Ronan McDonald The Times Higher Education Supplement )
[A] timely lecture for the coalition of dunces ... this is a closely argued defence (Independent on Sunday )
The book is a bit like some university courses. It is erudite, well argued, carefully researched, a fine addition to the debate about the purpose of university education (Scotsman )
[Collini is] stern and splendid in his brief history of the hot debate on useful versus useless knowledge (Fred Inglis Times Higher Education )
It is extremely well written: Collini's prose is lively, well-reasoned and persuasive. The book is a refreshing example of a faculty member engaging with the wider issues of higher education rather than perceiving them through the narrow prism of his own discipline ... a valuable, timely contribution to the discourse (Gerry Wrixon Irish Examiner )
A critique both pointed and witty (Howard Newby Independent )
Collini writes beautifully (Chris Patten Financial Times )
Collini puts his finger on the nub of the problem facing universities. Collini's book is a must-read (Ac Grayling Literary Review )
Product Description
Across the world, universities are more numerous than they have ever been, yet at the same time there is unprecedented confusion about their purpose and scepticism about their value. What Are Universities For? offers a spirited and compelling argument for completely rethinking the way we see our universities, and why we need them.
Stefan Collini challenges the common claim that universities need to show that they help to make money in order to justify getting more money. Instead, he argues that we must reflect on the different types of institution and the distinctive roles they play. In particular we must recognize that attempting to extend human understanding, which is at the heart of disciplined intellectual enquiry, can never be wholly harnessed to immediate social purposes - particularly in the case of the humanities, which both attract and puzzle many people and are therefore the most difficult subjects to justify.
At a time when the future of higher education lies in the balance, What Are Universities For? offers all of us a better, deeper and more enlightened understanding of why universities matter, to everyone.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Collini's book is not a serious attempt to answer the question he poses. It is more an assertion of the value of the University as a public good, and an invitation to join the cause (though a paragraph on p 56 comes very close). His task is made more problematic by the fact that universities are a heterogeneous bunch that lack internal consistency as individual institutions, let alone as a sector, and that we live in a moment that thinks all public policy is about economic growth at the exclusion of everything else. He is strong on disposing of some of the more traditional defences of university privilege, despatching Newman and his ilk, and contextualising the argument about instrumentalism that currently rages across the piece, demonstrating less of an affinity with the past and more concern about the future of higher education once purged of its uselessness. For Collini, the idea of leaving the fate of the sector in the hands of the nation's 18 year-olds is anathema. Working in an HEI, I can't help but agree with him: it is an abrogation of responsibility to the emerging generation by politicians and civil servants who are always looking to shift responsibility from their own shoulders.
His problem is the same as everyone else who has tried to deal with these issues: whilst his argument for support remains one that is generalised and abstracted, the flat-footed, practical types that dictate policy (and he cruelly exposes their intellectual limitations in the analyses of their White Papers and so on) point gruffly at the absence of utility to the failed economy and ask why universities should be indulged. His intellectual sneering is funny, but also indicates the extent to which the bureaucrats of varying sorts cannot formulate another argument, or respond effectively to ones like Collini's. We are gazing across a gulf of mutual incomprehensibility. Collini's case centres around the role of the Humanities, in a manner reminiscent of Carey's defence of literature in another polemical book (What Good are the Arts?). Yet, despite agreeing with much of his analysis, and greatly amused by much of his writing, it is hard to believe universities are the great Corinthian institutions Collini claims them to be. Between chronically wasteful and talentless management, droves of second-rate, monster-fee-paying international students whose pass marks are financially underwritten, recalcitrant colleagues who refuse to change 'on principle', and ludicrous quality assurance regimes, one could almost embrace the Browne Review as the beginning of the end. This is not solely the fault of Browne (though surely his 'reforms' will be disastrous), but of our own lack of care at what are universities have become through the inability of the sector itself (especially its leaders) to properly articulate its value in the public domain.
His problem is the same as everyone else who has tried to deal with these issues: whilst his argument for support remains one that is generalised and abstracted, the flat-footed, practical types that dictate policy (and he cruelly exposes their intellectual limitations in the analyses of their White Papers and so on) point gruffly at the absence of utility to the failed economy and ask why universities should be indulged. His intellectual sneering is funny, but also indicates the extent to which the bureaucrats of varying sorts cannot formulate another argument, or respond effectively to ones like Collini's. We are gazing across a gulf of mutual incomprehensibility. Collini's case centres around the role of the Humanities, in a manner reminiscent of Carey's defence of literature in another polemical book (What Good are the Arts?). Yet, despite agreeing with much of his analysis, and greatly amused by much of his writing, it is hard to believe universities are the great Corinthian institutions Collini claims them to be. Between chronically wasteful and talentless management, droves of second-rate, monster-fee-paying international students whose pass marks are financially underwritten, recalcitrant colleagues who refuse to change 'on principle', and ludicrous quality assurance regimes, one could almost embrace the Browne Review as the beginning of the end. This is not solely the fault of Browne (though surely his 'reforms' will be disastrous), but of our own lack of care at what are universities have become through the inability of the sector itself (especially its leaders) to properly articulate its value in the public domain.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Collini is saying essentially that the purpose of universities is all the things that they may reasonably choose to undertake. Underlying this are: that the life of the mind is a key element in humanity; that, even when usefulness to society may weigh in consideration of what should most receive support and funding, prediction of effectiveness is very hard; that universities are generally staffed by(highly) intelligent and conscientious people who will reach good decisions. The backgound to his efort in this book is what many see as increasingly instrumentalist approaches by governments determined to push university endeavour towards the potentially economically useful: in pursuit of which aim they insist on the application of mechanistic measurement, which is often misleading and always effort-consuming. While Collini is concerned particularly with work in the humanities, the argument runs wider.
We are in deep waters here: communication between author and lay reader is not easily achieved. And many will continue determined not to listen let alone engage in argument. But Collini does well by any anyone willing to give time and attention to working thru what he carefully expounds and discusses.
We are in deep waters here: communication between author and lay reader is not easily achieved. And many will continue determined not to listen let alone engage in argument. But Collini does well by any anyone willing to give time and attention to working thru what he carefully expounds and discusses.
Format:Paperback
This book is vital fodder for parents of university students, the students themselves or anyone interested in the question - how much should universities be funded by the taxpayer? So that's pretty much all of us! Irrespective of whether you agree with the author's conclusions he directs us to the problems and, crucially, demonstrates the core skill I think universities are for, namely the ability to analyse issues, construct powerful arguments and to evaluate issues critically. The underlying problem is that there is no simple answer to the question of what universities are for, nor how (much) to fund them. The author's writing is clever and extremely witty at the same time. He occasionally writes sentences that require more concentration than others, but that strikes me as a good thing!
Reading this book prompted me to read The Trouble with Higher Education: A Critical Examination of our Universities. This (previously written) book looks drier on the face of it, but is an interesting perspective alongside that of Collini. Whilst it goes deeper into issues that may be more of interest to those in academia, it still raises questions I think students would find useful in order to understand the perspective of universities and the consequences of certain choices such as modular based degree courses. Again it demonstrates the skill of analysis and critique. I recommend the Hussey & Smith book as well.
Reading this book prompted me to read The Trouble with Higher Education: A Critical Examination of our Universities. This (previously written) book looks drier on the face of it, but is an interesting perspective alongside that of Collini. Whilst it goes deeper into issues that may be more of interest to those in academia, it still raises questions I think students would find useful in order to understand the perspective of universities and the consequences of certain choices such as modular based degree courses. Again it demonstrates the skill of analysis and critique. I recommend the Hussey & Smith book as well.
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