ABSTRACT
The Idea of a University began in 1852 as nine lectures called "Discourses on University Education". Michael Oakeshott wrote a number of occasional essays on school and university education and on learning and teaching, classifying different types of education in terms of their distinguishing characteristics, including an essay on "The Idea of a University". Oakeshott's idea of the university, as he tells us in "A Place of Learning", derives from the experiences of the Wandering Scholars of the twelfth century and the recovery of ancient learning in the next several centuries. For both John Henry Newman and Josef Pieper there is a great or sacred tradition, ignorance of which induces incoherence and intellectual chaos. Leo Strauss's assessment of liberal education is tied to his understanding of modern liberalism. Strauss admits that defending the Western tradition of liberal education today must also respond to the pressure of other cultures and the global context.
