Patrick Smith and I had taught in H E throughout the period of rapid expansion and, while we welcomed the increased access, we felt that it had been accompanied by several serious troubles. These included difficulties caused by chronic underfunding, the ending of student grants and their replacement by loans and tuition fees. Along side these we identified the increase in bureaucracy; the spread of managerialism; the reduction of trust in professionals and the growth of a culture of audit; the turn towards a market ethos; the change in the student's status to that of a customer and the deterioration of their experience of H E. We came to criticise the commodification of education and the misuse of modular degrees. Finally we looked at broader issues including the casualisation of the teaching profession and the division of the universities into research institutions and teaching factories.
So, the book tries to deal with a wide range of big issues, but all are focused on the nature and quality of education offered to our young people, and the need to cater for an enormously more diverse intake of students.
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