What are we here for?

Why do we have a university? Why UWA? "For instruction and research into those natural arts which go to make a country progressive, existence easier, toil more honourable and better rewarded..." (Alexander, 1963, p. 27). So said the royal commissioners in 1909. Which 'natural arts' today yield progress, honour, reward and an easier life? Is that why we teach? Progress? Do we recognise such a concept today? Will it have currency in the next century? Honour, reward, an easier life? Who for? What impact does our teaching have? What impact will individual teachers have in the coming hundred years? 'Instruction' - do we instruct today? Is this the same as to 'teach'? More recently, Laurillard (1993) and others have emphasised the idea of 'mediating learning' as a better expression of what teaching is about. Is this what we will be doing in the twenty first century, and how will we have changed?

• Alexander, F. (1963). Campus at Crawley. Melbourne: Cheshire.
• Laurillard, D. (1993). Rethinking University Teaching. London: Routledge.

Previously published in
Issues of Teaching and Learning, Vol 5 No 10 November 1999