But I think if I was to have to give a simple answer I would say the purpose of education is space. For an individual student it provides space to learn without the need for immediate return or application, space to think, and for many young people for whom higher education is a formative experience, space to discover the sort of person they want to be. For society it provides space and distance from commercial pressure, where expertise can develop independently. Without this space the demands of the instant can overwhelm other considerations. This maintains a crucial mix within society. We need people who are commercially oriented, who react to trends quickly and make fast decisions. We also need those who consider many variables, who take a long view and who remain independent, just as any good group needs a mixture of hawks and doves. The danger of the commercialisation of education is that it seeks to cast everyone in the same mould, and thereby undermine a key function of education.