Broken: Universities, Politics & the Public Good

In Broken: Universities, Politics & the Public Good, Graeme Turner provides a reality check for those who imagine the academic life is one of privilege and leisure, laying bare the enormous challenges and lack of hope experienced by many in academia. He unearths the foundations of this crisis, then explains how the solution lies in an overhaul of the one-size-fits-all approach to university funding, the establishment of genuine full-time career paths, and the formation of an independent body to ensure our university system serves the national interest in both teaching and research, rather than the ferocious competitiveness of the marketplace. Above all, he argues that  we need to jettison the current economic focus on education, and re-embrace the idea that higher learning is a fundamental public good—and should be funded as such.