What does the university of the 21st Century look like? Virtual perhaps, with virtual tutors, video conferencing, and ‘distance learning’ students, all working harmoniously via broadband connections? Well, no actually!

That despite many proclaiming that it would be on the back of the IT revolution. But this forgets a crucial element, that for most of us this virtual interaction is not very rewarding when compared to ‘meat space’.

When one of Harvard universities senior administrators, J Summers, talks about constructing a truly 21st century university, his emphasis is not on the virtual, far from it. Rather it is to provide the most nuanced and direct education to their students, and this means increasing the faculty and changing the culture within those faculties to encourage interaction with students - this is what will provide a cuting edge education, the coming together of these two in real space, where the pedigree of an idea, in all its nuanced forms, can be explored, wrestled over and debated. This cut and thrust of debate, reasoning, reflecting and thinking, all in real time, is at the heart of a quality education.

What it is not is some new ‘distance learning’ course, with a reading list and a so called ‘on-line tutor’ to email whilst awaiting your essay grade. Harvard University know this, and whilst many of our new universities resolutely don’t, in the very least prospective students need to.