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Universities should be about more than developing work skills. They must also be about producing civic-minded and critically engaged citizens - citizens who can engage in debate, dialogue and bear witness to a different and critical sense of remembering, agency, ethics and collective resistance.

The task of a university is the creation of the future, so far as rational thought and civilized modes of appreciation can affect the issue.

Universities used to prepare young adults for the real world. I dare say the graduates today go in without a clue and graduate without a clue. It's time to acknowledge the college degree is not worth what it was in the past. Times are changing, and so is the way we prepare our youth to survive in a competitive world.

Universities are the cathedrals of the modern age. They shouldn't have to justify their existence by utilitarian criteria.

The University conceives of itself as dedicated to the power of the intellect. Its commitment is to the way of reason.

I like the fact that I'm living in the world rather than in a university.

The old university attitude of 'publish or perish' has changed. Students and academics are realising that institutions such as Imperial College are also wealth-generators. It is very satisfying to be in a university where you have the freedom to innovate and yet know that there is a path to translate your work into industry.

It is possible to get an education at a university. It has been done; not often.

If you look at America, one of the great strengths of America is its university towns and the way a lot of their businesses and a lot of their innovation and enormous economic growth have come from reducing that gap, getting those universities directly involved in start-up businesses, green field businesses, new development businesses.