A U S T R A L I A N
U N I V E R S I T I E S ’
R E V I E W
REVIEWS
The Idea of the University – A review essay The Idea of the University: Histories and Contexts by Debaditya Bhattacharya (ed.) ISBN: 9781138055384 (hbk.), London: Routledge, xix+287 pp., 2019.
Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of Higher Education by Rob Watts ISBN: 9781137535986 (hbk.), London: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer, xxi+358 pp., 2017.
Politics, Managerialism, and University Governance: Lessons from Hong Kong under China’s Rule since 1997 by Wing-Wah Law ISBN: 9789811373022, Singapore: Springer, (hbk.), xxii+223pp., 2019. Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer & Catherine Link
Three contemporary books examine the fundamental changes occurring in and around today’s universities. The first book argues that the origin of the modern university lies in Europe. Starting with such a European perspective, Debaditya Bhattacharya’s edited volume The Idea of the University highlights the essence of the modern university. This concept hinges on modernism’s idea of a university dedicated to enlightenment (Kant, 1784). Such a concept was strongly influenced by Wilhelm Humboldt (1767-1835; see Nybom, 2003). Humboldt’s Bildungsideal [education ideal] favours a unity of research and studies directed towards the two Enlightenment ideals: the rational individual and the world citizen (MacIntyre, 2009). Bhattacharya’s volume shows the damage that has been done to Humboldtian universities in the USA and India. The book also illustrates why and how Humboldt’s Enlightenment university has been defeated by the neoliberal university. The second book – Rob Watts’ Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of Higher Education – presents an insightful overview of many changes experienced by universities in three Anglo-Saxon countries, namely Australia, vol. 63, no. 1, 2021
the UK and the USA. The book delivers one of the more comprehensive overviews of the current state of universities. The last book positions Hong Kong’s universities since the hand-over from British rule to Chinese rule. Wing-Wah Law’s book focuses on the emergence of university managerialism since 1997 – an ideology that has infected many, if not most, universities (Aspromourgos, 2012). This review starts with Bhattacharya’s The Idea of the University before taking a look at the Anglo-Saxon universities and finishing with the highly instructive case of Hong Kong.
The Idea of the University In the preface to The Idea of the University, Debaditya Bhattacharya writes that today’s universities exist at a time of a ‘resurgence of right-wing forces across continents [fostering] a climate of rabid anti-intellectualism’ (p. vx). Perhaps even more than its right-wing populist offsider, the ideology of neoliberalism has done very serious damage to ‘Humboldt’s idea of a university’ (p. 1). This damage comes through preventing universities from conducting research
The Idea of the University – A review essay Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer & Catherine Link
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