The Idea of a University: Defined and Illustrated (1873) has been described by a leading historian of education as ‘unquestionably the single most important treatise in the English language on the nature and meaning of higher education’.1 In it, Newman transforms a legalistic description of the university into a thrilling, emotion-laden, higher order conception of education. The Idea is endlessly cited, typically by those who take a high view of a university education and see Newman as the most inspiring advocate of a liberal education.
The Idea of a University comprises two parts: a series of lectures composed in 1852 to prepare the ground for the opening of the Catholic University in Dublin; and occasional lectures given at the University while Newman was rector. They were published individually at first, then in two separate collections in the 1850s. Only in 1873 were they brought together (after heavy editing) under the title by which they are now known.
The ten public lectures that Newman composed in 1852 are rightly considered masterpieces, for they have inspired debate on the nature and purpose of a university education like no other work in the English language – or indeed in any language.
In the Idea,Newman identifies many of the central functions of a university and gives lasting literary form to an argument which still captivates readers and inspires reflections on what a university ought to be.
Nowadays, the concept of a university as an institution of unique purpose has all but dissolved, and contemporary universities increasingly function as performance-oriented, heavily bureaucratic, entrepreneurial organisations committed to a narrowly economic conception of human excellence. In today’s world, the Idea provides an attractive alternative to the shapeless, relativistic and uninspiring institutions around us.
Readers need to be aware of Newman’s prose style, as vital distinctions are so embedded in the text that the reader can become absorbed by the magnificent prose and distracted from the underlying theme. For those prepared to give his arguments the sort of critical attentiveness they call for, the lectures prove how deeply Newman thought about such matters as teaching to personal development, and the importance of new knowledge and its limitations in the formation of the human mind.
A second caveat lector is that the lectures themselves were not composed as an exhaustive exposition or systematic study of their subject matter but as an exploration of a theme. In fact, the Idea comprises two of Newman’s three educational volumes. The third is his Rise and Progress of Universities, which brings out the pastoral dimension of the university.
While the Idea has been championed by both those of faith and those of none, the proclamation of St John Henry Newman as Doctor of the Universal Church on 1 November 2025 – the 38th person to be recognised as such – has drawn the attention of the world to his eminent teaching and wisdom. This attention was given special focus when, four days before the proclamation, Newman was named along with St Thomas Aquinas as a ‘co-patron of the Church’s educational mission’.2
