Bulletin Spring‧Summer 1980

have to take some positive action. But what kind of action? To give a correct answer to that question probably needs a higher degree of knowledge of ourselves than we now possess. This underlines the desperate need for a real development of the social sciences now primitive and underdeveloped and no t always in the hands of our ablest people. For unless we really understand ourselves and our behaviour in changing circumstances we could well destroy ourselves through misuse of the tremendous power for good or evil that is placed in our hands by science and technology. And that power will inevitably increase ； it is no use asking for a moratorium on science. Nothing in this world can stand still and those who call for a moratorium and a return to the good old days simply deceive themselves; there never were any good old days except perhaps for a very few and even they were plagued by discomforts and diseases which we would today regard as unacceptable. When one thinks about these things one realizes again that our success or failure as a society depends ultimately on education. Higher education is only a part of the story but it is the part with which I have been mainly concerned and it is, of course, the function of this University in which I am speaking. For that reason I shall confine myself largely to it on this occasion. The past twenty years have seen an explosive growth in higher education especially in the industrialized countries although it has also lapped over into the less developed countries whic h see in it a possible route to the affluence and importance which they seek to achieve. I am inclined to think that the origin of this expansion lay in the war of 1939-45 and particularly in the tremendous contributions made by science and technology to its conduct—just think of penicillin, radar, jet aircraft, and the atomic bomb with its promise of nuclear energy for peaceful use. It seemed that if w e really educated our youth and produced lots of scientists and technologists then the millennium was at hand. Of course it wasn't really ——but one result was that in the early sixties there was a tremendous and almost explosive expansion of higher education marked by creating man y more universities—in Europe to almost doubling their number and more than doubling the number of students in the course of about ten years. The sanguine hopes of those who initiated this great expansion have not been realized. Instead it has brought in its train several very serious problems which the universities will have to face in the eighties. First Problem The first of these comes from the fact that although everyone will agree that all who have the necessary qualifications should have the right to higher education it does not follow that everyone has the same type of ability or that the expression "higher education" should be equated with university education of the traditional pattern. That pattern is suitable only for a very small fraction of each age group——a fraction (or, if you like, an elite) which contains those with creative ability. The majority of those completing secondary education successfully have talents in other directions—in the more practical direction of putting to practical use discoveries made by scientists and technologists. This is not to say that they are of lesser ability but their ability lies in a different direction and it requires a different, more vocational, type of training for its full development. The result of the mistaken emphasis on traditional university education was that many young people found themselves forced into it for essentially social reasons although they had neither the motivation nor in many cases the ability to benefit from it; a secondary effect was the gradual lowering of standards forced on universities by this flood of unsuitable entrants. It is m y belief that the widespread student disturbances which characterized the end of the sixties were in part due to just these facts. They also led to the introduction and development of the polytechnics especially in the United Kingdom. These have been most successful in cases where they have devoted themselves mainly to technician training (using the word technician in its broadest sense to include such professions as nursing, accountancy, social service etc. etc.) Second Problem The second problem which has arisen fro m the over-rapid expansion b y creation of new universities and expansion of the old arises from the need to expand university staff rapidly. This was, in general, done by recruiting large numbers of staff from the existing stock of graduates and research students. These belonged for the most part to the same youngish generation and included of necessity some who would under normal circumstances have been regarded as not really of the highest quality. All or most of them were given tenured positions and so w e find many universities today in which most of the staff is 40-45 years of age and will remain in office for the next twenty years or more. This will block the flow into the academic profession of the young staff on w h o m they depend for the constant rejuvenation which is the life-blood of our universities. Th e likelihood of more posts being created for these young people now coming forward in research is small especially in view 1 2