The Strange Death of the Liberal University

Abstract

The 1960s sees the birth of a new political generation in the advanced capitalist countries. Its school is the student movement. In Germany, Japan, America, France and Italy, combative student movements, born of explosive social tensions close below the surface of post-war affluence and political quietude, are demonstrating the vulnerability of advanced bourgeois society. Britain until recently appeared immune from such developments, although here too events of the past year pose the question as to the possible birth of a student movement. This essay is an exploration of that possibility. The focus is limited to the question of the actual basis for such a movement in the educational system itself.