A SUMMARY OF JOHN HENRY NEWMAN’S IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY

A SUMMARY OF JOHN HENRY NEWMAN’S IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY

John Henry Newman asserts that the main purpose for a university is to build a society where humans can engage in intellectual pursuits for and end itself not for any external purpose. For him university education should be focus on the students attending it. The main essence of education is to make possible the student to put their reason into practice. John Newman posits that universities are in need of a wide range of academic interest. He asserts that “though they cannot pursue every subject which is open to them, they will be gainers by living among those and under those who represent the whole circle.”

Nonetheless avers that the importance of intellectual relationship among student for the advancement of the knowledge and less dependence on their teachers as their only source of knowledge. He posited that a university education that is balanced, holistic and moderate in nature. Newman further stressed that university education should not only focus on the promotion of wisdom and knowledge but also on the development of self-determination of the mind and thought system. He states that the “students apprehends the great outline of knowledge, the principles on which it rests, the scale of its parts, its light and its shade, its great points its little, as he otherwise cannot apprehend them.”

Furthermore, Newman defines knowledge as “The indispensible condition of expansion of mind, and the instrument of attaining to it” and the attainment of this very knowledge would lead to what he describes as the “enlargement of the mind” in which students are fully engaged in ideas and concepts. Universities that possess this type of education are leaving their students with the enlargement of knowledge. This correlates directly with a higher purpose of education.

John Henry Newman believes that these are important aspects for a university to succeed in producing intellectuals.