Newman’s Irish University

John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University remains one of the classics of the philosophy of higher education. Composed in several parts in Dublin in the 1850s, it can only be properly understood in the context of the creation and relative failure of the Catholic University of Ireland, of which Newman was the first rector; although written by an Englishman, it is in several important respects an Irish book, shaped by and for Irish conditions. But it also draws on Newman’s own experiences, particularly of Oxford. Newman’s views on higher education were shaped by the debates of the 1810s and 1820s on the purpose and nature of higher education, and then by his own experiences as a fellow and tutor of Oriel College. It is the fusion of Ireland and Oxford that lies at the core of Newman’s classic text.