The political context of South Africa in the 1970's and 1980's under the Nationalist government bears little comparison with that of the UK over the past fifteen years. The university is a community of scholars; its role is to enable the personal and professional development of its students and staff. Personal' implicitly involves both intellectual and spiritual development. In apartheid South Africa in the 1970's and 1980's the central value on which the liberal English language universities set out their stall was academic freedom, articulated in terms of the freedom. According to Browne: Higher education matters because it transforms the lives of individuals. The dominant values are economic and individualistic shared no doubt with a great many contemporary bankers who have had them reinforced by their university experience. Yet at the national level in the UK, the findings of scientific research, whether practice-based or otherwise, do not appear to have a strong record when it comes to influencing government policy.