Back to the Future

Abstract

Prophecy has no place in higher education. Non-negotiable though this stricture is, it does not completely absolve scholarship from the responsibility of exploring the implications that may flow from what has been found. True, the present does not predict the future. Still, the seeds of that future are nevertheless present with us today. It is not then always irrelevant to anticipate a little. Accordingly, this chapter will do precisely that. For, just as the Evaluative State was the product of crisis, so today it faces a new crisis. In the light of what we have learnt from the unfolding of the Evaluative State over the past two decades or more, further questions may be posed about the future and the part played by both the Evaluative State and institutional autonomy within it. Thus, in this final chapter, we return to the fundamental issue explored in this study: namely, the interplay between two key dimensions in policy — the instruments by which higher education is judged and the values that form the basis for this judgement.