Abstract

University of Michigan President Alexander Ruthven observed before World War II: «the university is rapidly becoming the brain of society». Colleges and universities are predicated, above all, on the generation and transmission of knowledge, but this purpose involves several knowledge relationships, and they change over time. This paper identifies three basic knowledge roles that define the university mission. Knowledge for students, both cultural and instrumental. Academic knowledge for internal consumption by faculty and scholars. And knowledge for external benefits in society, which includes the value of educated workers, useful knowledge for industry and government, and contribution to intellectual and cultural life. This paper will employ this trifocal lens to examine the knowledge roles of American higher education and how they have evolved over five eras: the postwar settlement; the academic revolution of the 1960s; reaction and adjustment in the dismal 1970s; the post-1980 neoliberal era; and the 21st century.