Values and Aims of Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter makes the case for a philosophical reconsideration of the fundamental values and purposes of higher education. First, it shows that contemporary conceptions of higher education are built on foundational assumptions about the public and political interests that it is responsible for securing on behalf of citizens. These assumptions take the form of de facto educational interests that structure the provision of higher education. Second, the chapter shows why these foundational assumptions are likely to be misconceived or, at the very least, require a stronger justification, and also how these misconceptions have come to hold undue sway over the way in which we often reason about justice in higher education.