ABSTRACT
The notion of a 'compact' runs throughout the report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education; it forms a key idea in the 'vision' of higher education offered by the report. Through the development of such a compact, higher education is to come into a set of known and productive interrelationships with the wider society, to their mutual benefit. There is a voluntary character to a compact. Even though the arrangements are relatively informal in character, the parties to a compact recognise obligations on each of their parts; as Lord Dearing noted, there is a definite sense of mutuality to the relationships. Dearing's higher education compact can be operationalised so as to be sensitive to perhaps major differences within the parties; the dominant interests within those parties will emerge to shape the compact. A key element in the working out of any compact and especially the extent of its mutuality lies in trust.
