How to deal with the student problem
`Initially there is the demand for a fractional amount of student participation . . . The next step is increasing student representation whilst, at the same time, establishing student- run courses . . . It would involve students themselves deciding what they would like to be taught, how it should be taught and exam- ined, if examined at all. At a certain stage students would be able to make their own staff appointments. Finally there would be the fusion of staff and students so that all would be considered students.'
Those who prefer the liberal concept do so some simply because they enjoy it, some because they think it will lead to a better job and some because they wish to become civi- lised men and women. Those who prefer the revolutionary concept do so some, again, be- cause they enjoy it, some because they desire power for its own sake (a disease by no means confined to professional politicians) and some because they wish to undermine the whole basis of our present society, which they re- gard as rotten, and create an entirely new one. These last, arguing from the false premise that a modern advanced industrial society cannot exist without a steady supply of large numbers of carefully schooled and indoctrin- ated graduates, believe that by rebelling and insisting on their `rights' they can not only hold our present society to ransom, but ulti- mately shape a new one.
What is clear is that there is no room for these two concepts side by side at the same university. The revolutionaries find it frustrat- ing and intolerable that they should be ex- pected to adhere to rules and accept decisions that they have not made themselves, or that they should be expected to defer to anyone simply because his scholarship, learning and experience are superior to theirs. The liberals find it equally frustrating and intolerable that their studies should be disrupted, and free speech howled down, by the demonstrations of a minority of revolutionaries.
The solution, therefore, is that there must be in this country two types of university, what might be termed the university and the anti-university, with the school-leaver (and the don) able freely to choose which to attend or teach at. The revolutionaries would be able to go to rule-less discipline-free anti-universi- ties, where they could teach each other the philosophy of guerrilla warfare and discuss the evils of the society that is supporting them to their hearts' content. Should local authority grants not be forthcoming, the cen- tral government should not hesitate to step in. It would be a small price to pay for isolating the disruptive elements, the feeble- minded students and third-rate academics (as Ian McGregor's report in depth from Essex, on page 698, shows, these two groups are to a large extent coterminous) and forcing them to face the logic of their position, while allowing students and teachers at the genuine universities, freed from this infection, to get on with their work unmolested. Moreover, reasonable discipline at the genuine univer- sities would have the unanswerable authority of being freely and voluntarily chosen.
The student revolutionaries resemble nothing so much as the Greek colonels. Like the colonels, they believe that much in con- temporary society is rotten (and both are partly right). Both wish to purify society and appeal over the heads of traditional institu- tions to ordinary people; while the society both wish to build instead is infinitely worse. Neither can accept that their opponents should enjoy the right of free speech; and both have a grossly inflated idea of their own abilities and importance. The principal differ- ence (apart from age) is that the Greek colonels kept quiet until they were in a posi- tion to implement their beliefs. This simply shows that they are rather more intelligent than the students.
Fortunately, for this reason, the student revolutionaries pose no real threat to Civi- lised society. What they do threaten is the civilised university. The creation of two parallel systems of university education, with a free choice between them, is the only satisfactory solution.
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