Globalisation, the “Idea of a University” and its Ethical Regimes

This paper sketches the impact of globalisation and internationalisation on the terrain of values and ethics in higher education. The first part of the paper discusses values and ethics in higher education in relation to the "Idea of a University", and identifies the ethical regimes essential to the functioning of HEIs as knowledge-forming organisations. The second part draws out implications of globalisation. Globalisation together with the strengthening of executive steering are associated with the partial "disembedding" of higher education institutions from their national governments, along with a pluralisation both of their spheres of operation and the range of private goods and public goods they produce and of the public they serve. This raises new questions about the governance and management of the values and ethical regimes associated with global goods, e.g. the obligations of communicability, mutuality, academic freedom, the protection of persons in higher education suggested by cross-border relationships, and the modes whereby these values and ethics are promoted.