It is the brainchild of philosopher A.C. Grayling, formerly of Birkbeck, who will be the Master of the College, which will offer degrees in History, Philosophy, English, and Economics, as well as Law. Tuition will be 18,000 GBP, so double the Oxbridge rate (though still far cheaper than liberal arts colleges in the U.S.). The founding faculty is replete with renowned U.K. faculty who have hit the mandatory retirement age at other universities, as well as several "marquee" names from the U.S., whose frequency of presence in the classroom one might reasonably wonder about.
On the one hand, the arrival of New College will just exacerbate the neoliberal trend in higher education in Britain, but I fear that battle is already lost. On the other hand, New College will presumably free professors from the increasingly idiotic bureaucratic requirements of higher education in Britain, which will work to the advantage of both faculty and students. It is also welcome, of course, to see priority given to such core intellectual subjects as History and Philosophy. I hope New College is a success. What do readers think? Signed comments will be very strongly preferred.
UPDATE: Grayling here defends the enterprise against a challenge from the head of the Birkbeck Student Union (scroll down).
ANOTHER: An informative item from The Guardian. I have to say the apparently mandatory "business skills" course is a bit creepy, and seems rather hard to square with the high-minded emphasis on core scholarly disciplines. (You certainly won't find anything like that in the elite American colleges that are purportedly the model.)
