In search of an ethical university: a proposed East–West integrative vision

Abstract

This article employs a sociological analysis of the changing role and mission of higher education from that of a ‘public good’ to that of a service industry. In this regard, the rise of modern universities as corporate enterprises in the recent decades has often neglected the important dimension of education as a process of enlightenment, with its ethical and moral dimensions. The author tries to put into perspective the relevance of searching for an ‘ethical university’ by proposing to integrate the important notion of Enlightenment as formulated by Kant, Newman's idea of the university and other similar western ideals, with the eastern ideas of the Confucian Classic The Great Learning, in order to suggest how the quest for an ‘ethical university’ might materialize in the future.

Keywords:

• internationalization of higher education
• higher education and ethics
• entrepreneurial university
• academic capitalism