How have academic men in Britain adapted themselves and their institutions to the changes in British society over the past century, and how are they meeting the rapid expansion of the university system that began in the 1960s? What have been the changes in the power and status of British academics and of the English “idea of the university” over these years, and what are the effects on British universities and university teachers of Britain's current move toward mass higher education? Two of today's finest sociologists of education answer these and other questions in a lively and insightful portrait of the changing function of the university in industrial society. Both authors are also students of the American educational system, and a comparative perspective is evident throughout.