ABSTRACT
Universities hold a valuable role. As sources of democratic legitimacy they can help support the public sphere in times of trouble. They are imperfect, obviously, and in times of peril they collapse under the weight of tyranny. But they offer protection from populist politics and from short-term political considerations. However, I have attempted to argue that their democratic value is draining away. The contemporary university under the kind of market conditions we see in Britain, especially England, Australia, New Zealand, many parts of the USA and Canada is the frequent victim of social processes which have led to what Jürgen Habermas termed the colonisation of the lifeworld. Though universities differ in terms of their character, age, size, specialisms and reputations, I have tried to argue that a ‘new’ managerialism, often encouraged by the state, has left universities in a parlous condition. It is not simply that the physical institutions that we call universities, and those who work and sometimes live within them, are coming under increasing stresses, more than this (because it is more insidious and less avoidable) it is what it means to be a university which is under attack. There is a danger that the reasons why we value universities will disappear from view: people with epistemic resources can hold power accountable.
