➢ To meet individual learning needs and aspirations of individuals (identified as a vehicle for equity);
➢ To address the development needs of society and the labour market and provide “self programmable labour”;
➢ To contribute to socialisation and the “common good” through the reproduction or transformation of social relations; and
➢ To contribute to the creation, sharing & evaluation of knowledge.
Manuel Castells, on the other hand (2001, p206 – 208) identified four historic functions of the University – all of which occur simultaneously within the same structure, albeit with different emphases at different times, in different places, and within different institutions (p211). These functions are listed as:
➢ Serving as an ideological apparatus
➢ The selection of dominant elites
➢ The generation of new knowledge (the “science function”)
➢ The training of professionals
These four functions operate in creative tension with each other, some supporting and enhancing others – for example, the “science” function and the “professional training” function – while others seemingly conflict, such as the “science” function and the “ideological function: the former often claiming to be “value-free” while the latter is explicitly value-driven.
There's little doubt which of these functions some Higher Education Institutions in the UK (and Oz?) are foregrounding when one hears of their latest endeavour: a UK University establishing a presence in Australia "to share expertise on how to counter terrorism"...