Collegiality and Complexity: Humboldt's Relevance to British Universities Today

Abstract The two fundamental features of Humboldt's prescription for the new University of Berlin in 1810 – research‐like learning as a collaboration of teachers and students, and academic freedom of research and teaching (based essentially on an intuitive, but deep understanding of complexity theory) – are as valid now as they were 200 years ago in spite of all the changes over the nearly 200 years, including the substantial loss of societal status of the academic profession. It proposes means of adapting them to 21st century conditions, in strong contrast with the increasing present practices of school‐like learning, micromanagement by top‐down administrations and constant interference by governments. Man, it seems, is a delicate machine, which gets out of order easily. N. Kazantzakis, ‘Christ Recrucified’