Creating a University of Distinction

John Henry Newman’s The Idea of the University (1873) holds that the sole reason for universities is to create knowledge. He envisioned a community of scholars—faculty members as well as their students—whose efforts were to make a mark on the sum total of human knowledge and by that means make the world a better place. There are many who now find Newman’s ideas passé, particularly so as we now see the university as an important tool of social engineering.