ABSTRACT
The Dearing Committee conducted the largest review of higher education since the Robbins Report of 1963. But in contrast to the Robbins Committee, which had spoken from within academia and whose members came mostly from the higher education sector, the Dearing Committee also included members drawn from industry and banking – a fact that already shows that the situation of higher education and its position within society had changed. In contrast to the liberal and democratic ideals of the Faure Report, which had emphasised the fundamental solidarity of governments and of peoples, the belief in democracy, and the complete fulfilment of man, in all the richness of his personality, the Dearing Committee envisioned a rather different learning society. The vision of the learning society not only tackled the concept of the student with regard to who participated in higher education, but it also repositioned the student in terms of power and agency.
