Learning Moral Commitment in Higher Education?

Abstract

Britain is faced with many intractible problems. These call for detailed analysis, but equally also for examination of the values that inform them and the influences that shape those values. The present paper assumes, first, that the most fundamental of the values to be considered are those‐‐such as integrity‐‐which sustain probity in public life; secondly, that it is important to explore in what ways universities are likely to influence students’ moral commitments; thirdly, that moral values are properly regarded as ‘valuations’, or dispositions to certain kinds of behaviour to which a sense of obligation is attached; and fourthly that, despite the predominantly relativist view of values current in postmodern thinking, it is necessary, if effective action is to be taken in the public domain, to find some “sense of minimum universal values” (Weeks, 1993). The greater part of the paper is taken up with an analysis of four areas of activity through which the staff of an institution are likely to influence their students’ moral dispositions and generate commitment.