In a context of unprecendented expansion within universities, the publication of the Dearing Report into Higher Education and the subsequent Government White Paper on lifelong learning are stimulating debate in the UK. Issues of funding, of access, and of the public and private good to be expected from higher education have been brought into focus. This work challenges some of the assumptions behind recent thinking and discusses the idea of the learning society through a reappraisal of the relationship between the university and the community. Taking the reader through a range of practices that characterize the university, it reconsiders the demand for efficiency, effectiveness and accountability, especially with regard to the effect on curriculum management and quality.