University

An institution, which in the communal sense was conceived as the concrete embodiment of an ideal of life (rather than in the sense of a group of material structures, buildings and grounds). In particular, such a communal institution reflects the tripartite ideal of study, teaching and research, all interlinked and in some instances hardly distinguishable, engaged in for the purpose of creating and transmitting meaning as brought out by the connections within and between the disciplines. The contemporary university tends to constitute a focus of activities of many kinds; intellectual, athletic, social, etc, however, most notably, its educational purposes may suffer from an enormous administrative burden brought about by the centralizing and institutionalizing, in the physical sense, of the community of scholars. This centralization is not cost-effective and increases the 'ticket price' for higher learning. Universities therefore are continually distracted from their educational purposes by pressing administrative and financial needs and by continually raising tuition costs, making learning a privilege of an elite. Open universities, peoples' and non-traditional colleges and universities help offset this trend and the traditional university is under great pressure to reform, or go under.