Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

To what extent can the idea of the common good enhance or strengthen existing notions of public and private goods? How is the common good constructed and measured? What are the policy implications of using the idea of the common good in higher education systems? This paper addresses these questions.

Paper long abstract

Goods can be public, private, or common. The differences among them relate to how they are created, distributed, regulated, and governed. Public goods, for instance, must be accessible to all groups in society, while private goods are only for those who can afford them. In the former, the state plays a key role; in the latter, the market regulates supply and demand.

It is appealing to claim that education in general—and higher education in particular—can be considered a common good. The notion of the common good helps, on one hand, enrich utilitarian ways of valuing education and, on the other, highlight contributions that go beyond individual impacts. The term “common” is thus contrasted with “individual.” However, these assumptions deserve further discussion.

Once we analyze how the common good within a university is constructed, normative guidelines can follow. Because the common good focuses on processes rather than outcomes, a critical review of the internal processes of any university is needed. To address long-standing problems and emerging challenges, autonomy and independence are crucial for identifying real opportunities for institutional change. When universities exercise genuine academic freedom, the common good can emerge. At the same time, performance indicators may improve. This points to an “order problem” that must be tested empirically.

Promoting the idea of the common good in universities also requires open deliberation and a factor often uncommon in some higher education institutions: responsibility. As the writer George Bernard Shaw observed, “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”