Book Reviews

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to think about the competing factors which shape the nature of university education now. The funders, potential employers and students all approach die university with particular needs and ideologies, and it seems that die actual providers, the university personnel, have the task of managing the conflicts and the anxieties underlying the needs. However, they also have their needs, their beliefs about the purpose of education and their worries. Drawing broadly on psychodynamic concepts and using examples from my experience as a lecturer, counsellor and organizational consultant, I look at the effect of these tensions on the functioning of the university.