This document discusses the purpose of universities through a series of reflective activities and discussions. It begins with questioning what universities are for from both an individual and societal perspective. Participants then engage in individual reflection, group discussions to build consensus, and visual art activities to explore different conceptions of the purpose of higher education. Key purposes that emerge include personal growth, citizenship, social justice, knowledge and intellectual growth, character development, creativity, and understanding one's role in the world. The document concludes by reflecting on universities cultivating educated and virtuous individuals but leaves the overarching question of the purpose of higher education open-ended.

1. Starting with why:
What are universities for?
Professor Tansy Jessop
USW Senior Management Conference on L&T
@tansyjtweets
28 November 2016

2. Session outline
1. Reflections on the Market and HE
2. Individual reflective activity
3. Diamond Nine Activity
4. Visualising different purposes
5. Perspectives on the purpose of HE
6. So what is the purpose of Higher Education?

3. Why go to university?

4. Is it worth it when for the price you can
get…
• 108,000 Freddos @25p each
• 98 Freddos per day
• 6,293 Big Mac Meals @£4.29
• 5.7 burgers a day

5. A new mini-cooper Clubman S
Automatic

7. “An unprecedented
barrage of game-
changing policy
developments”
““We have lost a
golden age that we did
not realise we had”
“Nothing makes sense”

8. Of course, too many people go to university now, don’t
they? I mean, what is the point?”
So, with one eye on the departure board, I found myself
launching into a robust defence of UK higher education.
…benefits.. for the individual student, for the nation and for
global humanity. I tried to paint the bigger picture of
education as a public good…
Quite rightly, they were concerned with the level of tuition
fees, student living costs and the prospects of employment
upon graduation.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/its-time-go-back-basics-demonstrate-benefits-higher-education

9. So what is the market doing to our
vision of HE and pedagogy?
1. Narrows the focus to measurable outputs (DLHE,
NSS, TEF, PTES, PRES, CRM, KPIs).
2. Constructs students as consumers
3. Reduces playful, risky, thought-provoking,
relational, deliciously quirky teaching and
learning
4. The language of audit, standards, and metrics is
dominant.

10. Back to basics
Let’s explore our
conceptions of
what university is for…
a) In an individual exercise
b) In a ‘Diamond Nine’
c) Through Art

11. Activity 1: Postcards from the Edge
Choose a picture that you are drawn to.
Don’t think too much about it.

12. Jottings
1. Why did you choose the picture?
2. How does the picture relate to the benefits university
has given to your life?
3. What does the picture speak to about your hopes and
dreams for 21st century graduates?
4. What shadows do you imagine for USW in 2016, which
link to the picture?

13. Talk to someone – not a usual suspect
• Chat about the
picture and your
thoughts
• Swap over after five
minutes.

14. Activity 2: Diamond Nine
• In groups, open your
envelope.
• It contains statements
about the purpose of HE
• Agree a hierarchy of nine
in clumpy bits
• Discard, amend, reach
consensus

15. Consensus building
• Let’s look at the top
categories (this may be
messy!)

16. Personal
growth
Citizenship
Social justice
and
transformation
Economy
and jobs
Character
and moral
virtue
Knowledge
and
intellectual
growth
Creativity

17. Activity 3: World Café Art
• Choose a table with the educational purpose that
most interests you, or you want to explore most.
• What would learning and teaching look like in a world
where this purpose was dominant?
• Draw an image or metaphor (which may be an animal,
plant, machine etc.) which represents this purpose as
the central driver of Learning and Teaching.

18. Show and Tell
• Choose a spokesperson to share your drawing
• Tell the group what it represents, and why you
chose the image/metaphor
• How has thinking visually influenced your
thinking about this purpose in HE?

19. What is an educated person?
It means respecting the miracle of life, being empowered
in the use of language, and responding sensitively to the
aesthetic. Being truly educated means putting learning in
historical perspective, understanding groups and
institutions, having reverence for the natural world, and
affirming the dignity of work. And, above all, being an
educated person means being guided by values and
beliefs and connecting the lessons of the classroom to
the realities of life.
(Boyer 1995)

20. Quinlan’s Virtues

21. A new model (Barnett and Coate 2005)
• Knowing is about content
• Acting is about becoming a
historian, actor,
psychologist, or
philosopher
• Being is about
understanding yourself,
orienting yourself and
relating your knowledge
and action to the world
Knowing
Being
Acting

22. Reframing Barnett and Coate 2005
• What is about content
• How is about becoming a
historian, actor,
psychologist, or
philosopher
• Why is about
understanding yourself,
orienting yourself and
relating your knowledge
and action to the world
What
Why
How

23. So what are universities for?

24. References
Barnett, R. and Coate, K. 2005. Engaging the Curriculum in Higher Education. SRHE
Boyer, E. 1995. What is an Educated Person?
Collini, S. 2012. What are Universities for? London: Penguin Books.
Mann, S. J. 2008. Study, Power and the University. Maidenhead, Open University Press.
Quinlan, K. 2014. Developing student character through disciplinary curricula: an analysis
of UK QAA subject benchmark statements, Studies in Higher Education. 41(6) 1041-54.
Times Higher Education Supplement (various)