ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to explore issues related to the drive for competence-based education and professional training promoted by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) in Britain. It is argued that while it is appropriate for higher education institutions to be concerned with vocational matters, current policy directions belie a dangerously shallow view of uni versity education as merely job training. The intellectual and ideological vacuum created by the “industrialization of higher education” (Hyland, 1996a) leaves universities vulnerable to attack from all political sides. Higher education leaders must push for the widespread adoption of a conception of learning that incorporates both the needs of the labor market and eco nomic regeneration as well as the need for moral and political responsibil ity.
