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British Academy Lecture: Universities: Just another business or there to serve the common good? by Professor Simon Marginson

Date:8 December 2026 |
Time:17:30 - 18:30
Location:Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, Newcastle University | Get directions
Talk
Booking Required
Pre-booking is required

All our events remain free and open to all, but pre-booking is required. Bookings for this lecture will open at 10:00 on 1 December.

To reserve your place click the booking link below or telephone our booking voicemail line 0191 208 6136.

British Academy Lecture

How can we make a world better? What collective tools do we have? One of the essential tools must be higher education. Yet the contribution of UK universities to the common good is patchy: better at allocating people to unequal destinations than creating equal opportunity, better at building their own prestige than bringing knowledge to all. Is this inevitable? Reflecting on British policy and international examples, this lecture explores the present limits and future possibilities of universities for the local, regional, national and global common good.

Professor Simon Marginson, University of Oxford

Simon Marginson is Professor of Higher Education at the University of Oxford, and Joint Editor-in-Chief of the journal Higher Education and a leading scholar in global and international higher education. His work spans global, international and comparative higher education, global science, higher education in East Asia, and the contributions of higher education to the common good. He has authored or edited 35 books on higher education, and his research is widely published and cited in the field.

Book from 1 December