Unseen Universities and Seen Academics: An Introduction

This Chapter frames the collection 'Academia and Higher Learning in Popular Culture' in terms of its themes and common threads, situating a multi- and cross-disciplinary volume in its intellectual contexts. Essentially part of a larger critique of the neoliberal university—and situated within the scholarship and ‘Jeremiads’ of recent years (including work by Forsyth, Hil, Collini, Taylor, Smyth, and others)—the volume takes this further and engages with popular-cultural, literary, and other imaginings of academia and higher education that are not aware of this broader ideological framework and stem instead from a romanticised or imagined version of what the academy or university/college should be, or is dimly remembered to have been. We also therefore situate the volume in the broader context of the idealised university in literature and culture, including the ‘Campus Novel’ phenomenon of the twentieth century, as well as the teen-oriented ‘College Movie’ phenomenon of the 1970s and beyond. Forays into Colin Dexter’s ‘Inspector Morse’ novels (and the famous TV adaptations starring John Thaw), as well as lesser-known works—such as Robert Barnard’s Death of An Old Goat (1974), set at the University of New England, Armidale—feature in what is the first sustained literature review of its kind. The chapter draws together all the otherwise disparate chapters to show that there has been (and is today) a significant groundswell of popular-cultural questioning regarding the past, present, and future purpose of the university, academia, and higher education, that should not be lost on policy makers, academics, or students, as we enter a period of increased uncertainty for the Anglophone Academy.