University mission and identity for a post post-public era

The paper reflects on the implications of two influential albeit contrary movements affecting research universities in Australia (and many other nations): global rankings, which normalize the comprehensive science-based research university; and the policy emphasis on diversification. It critiques the global rankings developed by the Times Higher Education Supplement and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which tend to shift control over the definition and purpose of university activity to the rankings agencies themselves. Taken together, rankings and diversity pose for university executives and governing bodies the question of university mission and strategy. It is knowledge creation that distinguishes universities. To go to the root of mission and strategy is to revisit the academic fundamentals, focusing on the mixed public/private character of the core academic 'products' of universities and on the internal ethical regimes essential to sustain free scholarship and research.