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  • Trailblazing at the New College of the Humanities

    Wednesday 8 June 2011

    Categories: Careers, Education, Higher Education

    When Anthony Grayling spoke to the senior students at St Paul’s recently, offering them an effortless, witty, note-free guided tour of the history of Western philosophy in slightly under 35 minutes, it was clear that here was someone supremely in command of his subject. The rapt attention of his audience also reflected his instinctive gift for the kind of communication that works for intelligent 17-year-olds, albeit of the hands-free, information-rich generation, afloat on a largely uncharted sea of internet access. A great teacher is still a great teacher.

    So it is not surprising that high- quality teaching lies at the heart of Anthony Grayling’s vision for the New College of the Humanities, a private university that will provide degree courses of outstanding quality in subjects for which the future has come to seem worryingly uncertain: law, economics and economic history, literature, philosophy and history. Students will benefit from the expertise of the college’s glittering array of internationally renowned academics and, yes, the professoriate will actually teach, not just appear on the home page of the website. Undergraduates will have a level of individual tuition that is now little more than a source of nostalgic longing for most institutions. An encouragement towards joint honours degrees will offer breadth (part of the strong and growing appeal of US liberal arts colleges) and this will be further complemented with professional modules and internships.

    Graduates of New College will have not only informed, inquiring and highly trained minds, they will also be able to demonstrate the ability to apply their analytical skills in a competitive professional context.

    What do bright A-level students with a love of the subjects offered want from university? They want to be exposed to the best minds in the world and to be taught as well as they have been taught at school. They want to be challenged to explore new ways of thinking and to form ideas, in an intellectual environment that is liberal and exhilarating as well as exacting and challenging. And at the end of all this, they want to take their place in society and get a good job.

    A. C. Grayling’s New College is a visionary project but it will be no ivory tower. It is grounded in some realities that are difficult to ignore. There are not enough places in humanities at leading universities for the many bright students leaving school. They are looking in increasing numbers at institutions around the world that offer something more than Oxford and Cambridge. That includes the diverse and imaginative liberal arts programmes available in the US.

    With the prospect of reduced funding, options in the UK seem likely to shrink further. If we seriously expect to provide robust and sustainable courses that will be a match for the very best that British schools can currently offer, something radical — such as founding a new university, for example — has to be done. Detractors and prophets of doom will say that the £18,000-a-year fees make this an unrealistic proposition. Yet this figure is well below the cost of many independent schools and less than half of the cost of a US university place.

    The charity that will run alongside New College will ensure that a healthy proportion of funded places will be available and, anyway, how long will it be before the “top” fee charged by UK universities has to increase? The reassuring thing about New College is that, thanks to the confidence, commitment and acumen of its investors, it has a sound business base.

    Ultimately, New College will succeed only if real students paying real fees want to go there. Can anything so brazenly new-minted hope to rival Oxford and Cambridge? I think so. I would encourage students to consider it alongside other leading academic intitutions. The pioneering spirit of its founders is optimistic, courageous, ambitious and not complacent. This is an essentially young spirit to which New College’s first generation of undergraduates, about to identify themselves, will want to respond. And what if this seems risky, untested and slightly uncharted territory? Blazing a trail and shaping the new is what my students do all the time. I hope some of them will be fortunate enough to become part of the pioneering generation of the New College of the Humanities and the exciting intellectual landscape it seems set to create.

    Clarissa Farr
    High Mistress, St Paul’s Girls’ School

    This article first appeared in the Times 07.06.11

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