The Idea of a University

"The aim of the University is a true enlargement of mind... the power of viewing many things at once." Though a century and a half has passed since John Henry Newman delivered the lectures which provide the basis for The Idea of a University, the prescription he served up is more relevant today than during the Victorian era. Newman wrote and delivered these addresses upon becoming the first rector of the newly founded Catholic University of Ireland in Dublin. His vision shaped that school, and helped inform the modern understanding of what a university education should encompass.