Introduction and Overview

Abstract

Lord Dearing left the education sector with many legacies, tangible and intangible. One of the constructs underpinning his thinking was the need to look forwards whilst looking backwards — helping the sector to evolve whilst curating the essential elements that maintain UK education providers, and particularly its universities as a byword for excellence in the global market. As the external environment heaps change upon change in and around the Higher Education sector then Dearing’s ‘Castles of the Third Age’ is an increasingly relevant metaphor.

When the wind of change blows, some build walls others build windmills…¹