No Place to Learn: Why Universities Aren't Working

Alexander D. Gregor is director of the Centre for Higher Education
Research and Development at the University of Manitoba and coeditor of
Postsecondary Education in Canada: The Cultural Agenda.

No Place to Learn provides an interesting overview of the problems
facing the contemporary Canadian university. The authors, both members
of the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta, do
a good job of outlining several critical current issues, including the
inadequate emphasis on undergraduate teaching, the misdirection of much
of university research, the relation between teaching and research, the
rapidly emerging problems associated with ethics, and potentially
troublesome links with business and industry. References to parallel
events in, and influences from, the United States are provided. For the
uninitiated, there is an engaging hypothetical account of a
“typical” academic career.

Pocklington and Tupper do not feel that the university is the helpless
victim of external forces. They propose a number of thoughtful
solutions, while recognizing that there has been little evidence to date
of the political will necessary to effect change. Although aimed at the
general reader, their book is of interest to members of the university
community as well.