Universities and Colleges: A Very Short Introduction

This book looks at the role of the university in a social and economic context, as a repository of knowledge and a site for instruction. It considers how universities are founded,, funded, governed, lead, and managed, how the advent of increased fees has affected their relationship with students, and what is in the future for higher education.

David Palfreyman is the Bursar and a Fellow of New College, University of Oxford. He is also Director of the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies. David serves as the Honorary Treasurer of and as a Trustee of the Society for Research in Higher Education. He is a co-editor of the Routledge 25-volume series International Studies in Higher Education; and a Member of the Editorial Board of The World of Learning (Routledge). His publications include: Reshaping the University: The Rise of the Regulated Market in Higher Education (with T. Tapper, OUP, 2014); and The Law of Higher Education (with D. Farrington, OUP, 2012).

Paul Temple is Reader Emeritus in Higher Education at the UCL Institute of Education, London, where he was until recently Co-Director of its Centre for Higher Education. His research centers around issues of efficiency and effectiveness in higher education institutions, which has led him to study the physical form of universities and colleges, and how these may affect the academic work of the institutions. Before entering academic life, he worked in university and college planning and finance.