Edward Shils: defender of the traditional university

Abstract

Universities and science policy were key areas of Edward Shils’ concerns. His commitment to the research university ideal as the central institution for the production and dissemination of knowledge and the essential role of higher education for social and economic development led him to establish the journal Minerva. This journal became central for research on higher education and for debates on science policy. Shils wrote thoughtfully on the role of the research university, and was one of the first scholars to focus on universities in developing countries, pointing out their centrality for emerging economies. Shils belief in the Weberian ideal of the research university led him to analyse the history of universities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and defend the traditional ideal of faculty autonomy and governance.