The Treatment of Research

The recommendations of the Dearing Report concerning research organisation and content are critically examined. Many of them are seen to be benign and to adopt an appropriately pluralist approach to the objectives and working of the higher education system. The report is criticised, however, on several grounds. The Committee had a fragile grasp of the nature of knowledge and of its modes of production, and failed to remedy this by consulting sufficiently available international and national research. It is, therefore, inadequate as an example of the way in which research on higher education should be used in determining higher education policy. It takes for granted conventional wisdom on several key issues: the application of selectivity in research funding; the priority to be given to areas identified in the still largely unevaluated Technology Foresight programmes, and the relationships between uni- and multi-disciplinary work.