ABSTRACT
The causes of the present discontents in England must be considered before considering how student influence may change, grow or become more institutionalized. Increasing student participation is important: but it is less important than explaining much more and much more publicly how decisions are made. The real and the legitimate student demand is to hear and be heard on matters that affect him as a student or young scholar: not just on marginal things — athletics, lodgings and union premises. Students often expect too much because they do not know what to expect. Press and television give extremists publicity, but it is only in the universities themselves that they can be argued back against. To realize the total breakdown is as unlikely as any return to a passive normal should strengthen resistance to some demands, which are either absurd or which threaten the freedom and the pluralistic nature of universities.
