This study aims to identify and explore the nature of ideas of the university in the present to demonstrate how the ideas both enable and constrain the emergence of its possible futures.,An integrated literature review of work on the western university was undertaken to identify the defining elements of ideas discussed in the literature – purpose, social legitimacy and embedded future – for the university in each idea.,Four contested and co-existing ideas of the university in the present were identified, and the nature of their co-existence and their underpinning assumptions about the purpose and social legitimacy and the embedded future held by each idea are made explicit.,The paper focuses only on public, non-profit western universities as they exist in Australia, Europe, the UK, Canada and the USA in the present. Whether other forms of the university such as private non-profit and private for-profit “fit” into the four ideas and university types identified here was not explored and is a topic for future research.,The paper draws on an extensive literature to identify a new frame to understand the evolution of multiple ideas of the university, the impact of these ideas on the empirical organisational form of the university and how they shape assumptions about the university’s possible futures.

中文翻译：

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有争议的想法和大学的未来

这项研究旨在确定和探索当前大学理念的本质，以展示这些思想如何既能实现又可以限制其可能的未来的出现。文献中讨论的思想的要素-目的，社会合法性和内在的未来-每个概念中的大学。确定了当前大学中四个有争议和共存的思想，并确定了它们的共存性质及其明确阐明了关于目标和社会合法性以及每种想法所蕴含的内在未来的基础假设。本文仅针对澳大利亚，欧洲，英国，加拿大和美国的公立，非营利性西方大学。当下。大学的其他形式，例如私人非营利性和私人营利性“适合”是否适合此处确定的四种思想和大学类型，是否经过探讨并成为未来研究的主题。一个新的框架，以了解大学的多种观念的演变，这些观念对大学的经验组织形式的影响以及它们如何塑造关于大学可能的未来的假设。这些想法对大学的经验组织形式的影响，以及它们如何塑造关于大学可能的未来的假设。这些想法对大学的经验组织形式的影响，以及它们如何塑造关于大学可能的未来的假设。