ABSTRACT
One change that has insinuated itself, provoked at least in part by the spectre of international competition, is the separation of higher education institutions into two kinds: those that teach and those that do research. The expansion of higher education achieved, although estimable in principle, is in practice beset by disfigurements and serious problems. Discussion about Britain's universities will be of relevance to many other countries with similar systems and troubles. For the individual the advantages and benefits of an education are difficult to exaggerate: they are the means to a better quality, and even quantity, of life. Those responsible for the development of higher education over recent decades, and those who voted them into power, almost certainly wanted to preserve what was good about the existing system: they wanted to preserve its essential nature and quality.
