Who are Universities For?

Josie McLellan is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. She is a social and cultural historian, with particular research interests in public history and the co-production of research with people outside the university. She was a course director for the Foundation Year in Arts and Humanities, an alternative route into higher education from when the programme started in 2013 to 2017.Richard Pettigrew is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol, with particular interests in formal epistemology and the philosophy of mathematics. He set up the Foundation Year in Arts and Humanities. He has worked, outside the university, on projects addressing literacy in prisons and supporting adults with learning disabilities.Tom Sperlinger is Professor of Literature and Engaged Pedagogy at the University of Bristol, where he is currently working with the Widening Participation team to introduce flexible opportunities for adult learners across the arts, sciences and social sciences. He set up the part-time BA in English Literature and Community Engagement and the Foundation Year in Arts and Humanities.

"A groundbreaking plan for overhauling the universities system... [a] radical blueprint—making even the dreaming spires of Oxbridge [into] Open Universities", The Social Review

• Introduction: Who are universities for?Towards a university for everyone: some proposalsInvisible crises: the state of universities in the UK‘It’s not for me’: outsiders in the system Education and the shape of a lifeFalse negatives: on admissionsThe women in Plato’s AcademyWhere do the questions come from?Conclusion: The university-without-walls