Vortragender

Abstract – Kurzbiografie – Publikationen 

Emer. Prof. Dr. Ronald Barnett, University of London

"Believing in the University"

Can we any longer, should we any longer, believe in the university?  To believe in the university in part implies an attachment to at least an idea of the University, if not the idea of the University.  In other words, belief in the university implies – at a deep level – a sense that the concept of the university retains some substance.

However, it could be said that the present age is marked precisely by a thinning of concepts.  Concepts proliferate but they are rarely worked through and so tend either to endorse the dominant ideologies of the age – especially of markets and entrepreneurialism – or they contest the dominant ideologies but hold out illusory images.  The University is implicated in this situation.  The very idea of the University itself thins and even threatens to dissolve, as each ‘university’ is challenged to identify its own mission.  In the process, the connection between ideas of the ‘University’ and the idea of ‘universality’ is lost as the university becomes excessively parochial, attending to its own impact on its region and favouring particular epistemologies.

Against these reflections, the questions in front of us are clear but profound: to what extent can the University be associated with the largest possible ideas – of truth, of knowledge, of dialogue, of human being and of societal wellbeing?  To what extent is there still space for the University to articulate creative but realisable concepts that are critical of the dominant concepts of the age?  Is any kind of universality still available to the University?  Is it still possible to believe in the idea of the University?  I shall argue for just that possibility.

Short Biography

Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education, University of London.  He is an internationally recognized authority on the conceptual and theoretical understanding of the university and higher education.  He has held senior positions at the Institute of Education, including that of Pro-Director for Longer Term Strategy and was also, for seven years, a Dean.  He is a past Chair of the Society for Research into Higher Education, and has recently served as a Special Adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee Inquiry into Universities and Students.  He is a Fellow both of the Higher Education Academy and the Society for Research into Higher Education and is currently Senior Research Consultant at the University of Surrey.  He has been awarded a higher doctorate of the University of London and was the recipient of the inaugural ‘Distinguished Researcher’ prize of the European Association for Institutional Research (EAIR).  He has been a keynote speaker in over 30 countries across the world.   

Ron Barnett has a particular interest in the theory and conceptualisation of higher education and for the last thirty years, he has been trying to develop a social philosophy of the university. He has also been trying to offer conceptual resources that might help universities to realise their potential for personal and social wellbeing.
Issues that he has tackled include: The idea of higher education in the twenty-first century; knowledge and the university, professional education, quality matters, Being a student, Reshaping the curriculum, The relationship between research and teaching, Academic identity, Being a university.

Currently, he is working on a book that is examining the place of the imagination in developing our ideas of the university.
Further Information
http://www.ioe.ac.uk/about/documents/RonBarnettCV.pdf  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvdtrYbPcHQ

Selected Publications

• Barnett, Ronald (2011):  Being a University. Routledge.
• Barnett, Ronald (2011) 'Learning about Learning: a conundrum and a possible resolution', London Review of Education 9 (1), 5-13.
• Barnett, Ronald (2010) 'Knowing and Becoming in the Higher Education Curriculum', Studies in Higher Education 34 (4), 429-440.
• Barnett, Ronald (2010) 'Marketised University: defending the indefensible' Molesworth, M., Nixon, L. and Scullion, R. (eds), The Marketisation of Higher Education and the Student as Consumer. London: Routledge.
• Barnett, Ronald (2010) 'Framing Education for Practice' J. Higgs et al (eds.), Education for Future Practice. Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
• John Strain / Ronald Barnett / Peter Jarvis (Hg.) (2009): Universities, Ethics and Professions. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Nicholas Maxwell / Ronald Barnett (Hg.) (2009): Wisdom in the University. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Barnett, Ronald (2007):  A Will to Learn: Being a Student in an Age of Uncertainty. McGraw-Hill/ Open University Press
• Barnett, Ronald (with Kelly Coate) (2005): Engaging the Curriculum in Higher Education. McGraw-Hill: Maidenhead (188pp) (Portuguese edition also published).
• Barnett, Ronald (2003): Beyond All Reason: Living with Ideology in the University (Open University Press)
• Barnett, Ronald (2000): Realizing the University in an Age of Supercomplexity (Open University Press) Awarded ‘Highly Recommended’ prize, Society for Educational Studies. Spanish edition also published.
• Barnett, Ronald (1997): Higher Education: A Critical Business. Maidenhead: Open University Press) (200pp)
• Barnett, Ronald (1994): The Limits of Competence (OU Press) (200pp) (October) (reprinted) Awarded second prize, for books on education, Standing Conference on Studies in Education Spanish edition also published. Chinese edition in press.
• Barnett, Ronald (1992): Improving Higher Education: Total Quality Care (OU Press) (240pp) (reprinted)
• Barnett, Ronald (1990): The Idea of Higher Education (Open University Press) (244pp) (reprinted) Awarded first prize, SCSE, for books on education, 1991. Chinese edition.

Further information
http://www.ioe.ac.uk/about/documents/RonBarnettPubs.pdf