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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 33 No. 15 1970
[Introduction]
The article below is an abridged version of an address titled, "Crisis in the University—Is Anarchy the Rule?." given by Lord Bowden, principal of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. The full text appeared in the December, 1968 issue of The Chemical Engineer. The reason for its publication in Salient will be self evident upon its reading. Moreover, as the European experience has shown so far this year, the so-called "student power" movement has not died as a temporary phenomenon, but has gathered momentum. Undoubtedly it will do so here.
In the last few years everyone has begun to worry about the universities. They are growing faster than they have ever before. It is probable that more students will go to universities in the last 40 years of this century than have been before in the whole recorded history. They have become a vital part of society—and they are helping to change the face of the world as they change themselves. They appear to be tearing themselves apart just as the world has come to understand that no community can prosper in the modern world unless it has large expensive universities of its own.
Why have universities exploded into riot and confusion?
Most of them are as orderly and efficient as they have ever been, but others seem to be in total chaos.