Utopian Universities: a technicist’s dream

Following a brief introduction, our paper is in four main sections. First, we lay out the points on which we agree with James Mazoué’s views expressed in ‘The Deconstructed Campus’. Second, we offer a critique of his views. Third, we consider evidence-based research opportunities for building universities that may incorporate ideas along the lines Mazoué proposes. Fourth, we summarise foreseeable barriers to creating such institutions. Thus our first and second sections are a direct response to Mazoué, while the third and fourth go beyond what he has written. We conclude that Mazoué’s arguments can only be sustained by adopting a technicist’s view, by seeking to control reality. We assert that a technicist is a utopian. Our view is that higher education must be modernised, to improve students’ learning, but through evolution rather than revolution.