Educational research and higher education

My task is to attempt to make a case for a certain type of research in Higher Education without committing the sins of ex cathedra preaching, or the indignity of speaking for others. First I outline the background to the proposal - essentially the approaches to, and changes in, educational research which have been evident in Auckland University's Department of Education, and the changes we have undergone, or are undergoing in education in New Zealand. Second, in relation to the universities, I indicate what we might have learned and heeded from the attacks upon the British Universities in the 1980s. Finally, I make some suggestions for the approach to the type of research which we will need in the future, I believe, as protection against further similarly ill-informed and ideological attacks upon the universities.