ABSTRACT
The institutions of higher education are much more open and diverse in their membership: it may be difficult to detect in them a youthful community like that described by Cardinal Newman. Modern universities are large institutions which offer their students a considerable range of choices as to what they study, where they live, what activities they take part in, which friends they make. However, even if this is an accurate picture of most institutions of higher education, there are some institutions which seem to have or to have had a more potent influence. Another interesting finding concerned the persistence of the attitudes and values acquired by those who had graduated from the college in the 1930s. Policy makers and other people pursuing particular goals generally look for specific rules, institutional arrangements or programmes that will have predictable effects of the kind they seek.
