The Collegial Tradition in the Age of Mass Higher Education

Book excerpt: Much of our writing re?ects a long-term commitment to the analysis of the col- gial tradition in higher education. This commitment is re?ected most strongly in Oxford and the Decline of the Collegiate Tradition (2000), which we are pleased to say will re-appear as a considerably revised second edition (Oxford, The Collegiate University: Con?ict, Consensus and Continuity) to be published by Springer in the near future. To some extent this volume, The Collegial Tradition in the Age of Mass Higher Education, is a reaction to the charge that our work has been too narrowly focussed upon the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge (Oxbridge). Not surpr- ingly, you would expect us to reject that critique, while responding constructively to it. The focus may be narrow, and although the relative presence and, more arguably, the in?uence of Oxford and Cambridge may have declined in English higher e- cation, they remain important national universities. Moreover, as the plethora of so-called world-class higher education league tables would have us believe, they also have a powerful international status. This, however, is essentially a defensive response dependent upon the alleged reputations of the two universities. This book is intent on making a more substantial argument. To examine the c- legial tradition in higher education means much more than presenting a nostalgic look at the past.