AC Grayling the master of the New College of Humanities

Professor Anthony Clifford Grayling is on top of the world Well Bloomsbury Sitting in his office overlookingBedford Square the Master of the New College of Humanities can barely contain his self-satisfaction lsquoWe havebeen more successful than anybody could have guessedrsquo he informs me

Two years ago lsquoone of the most hated men in academiarsquo was the target of eggs smoke bombs and insultswhen he announced a new pound18000-a-year private university His aim was to marry the tutorial teaching modelwith a challenging liberal arts course mdash with the help of some celebrity friends Academics foes and friends allrounded against Grayling and willed his experiment to fail

Although the hatred has dissipated the NCHrsquos master acknowledges both himself and his college provokeanger lsquoThere are plenty of people that are cross about it but I hope there are worthier objects of dislike than myold selfrsquo

Still it cannot have been easy to see so many of his academic friends turn on him Hersquos quick to attack literary

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critic Terry Eagleton who described the NCH as lsquoodiousrsquo lsquoMr Eagleton was caught out teaching at one of themost expensive universities in the United States and getting a very fat fee for it Hypocrisy takes a new nametherersquo Grayling says smugly lsquoBut other more serious colleagues and friends of mine in higher education whohave the same sort of outlook as I do politically I did find a little disappointingrsquo

With his trademark grey hair donnish quarters at the top of the college and oval glasses A C Grayling doesnot have the air of an education revolutionary Neither does the New College of Humanities an institution thatdespite the naysayers opened in 2012

The pupils filtering in and out bear the trademarks of normal university students mdashmessenger bags largetextbooks scruffy trainers and raggy scarves No apparent lsquoTim Nice But Dimrsquo figures

Unlike most college masters Grayling knows all of his pupils personally and frequently has students round totea He sees this as key for the lsquoserendipity of exchange of ideas debate discussion which are just asimportant as the formal part of educationrsquo

NCH students taking tea

Who is the typical New College of Humanities student lsquoTheyrsquove got to be bright theyrsquove got to be enthusiasticand they have to be committedrsquo he says They are mostly British because lsquotheir command of English has to beexcellentrsquo The college is unlikely to take in large numbers of Chinese students for example Grayling suspectswhen lsquothe net is broadenedrsquo it will be people from North America Australia and India

They must also be very intelligent lsquoWe ask them to do so much theyrsquove got to be bright theyrsquove got to beenthusiastic and they have to be committedrsquo he reels off Grayling is confident enough in his own selectionabilities that every student is interviewed and hand picked regardless of exam results lsquoExams donrsquot suiteverybody and university is a very different place from schoolrsquo

But do they need to be rich Although the majority of entrants come from independent schools Grayling isquick to stress the NCH offers a wide range of scholarships and exhibitions lsquoWe make a great deal of effort toget out to state schools maintained schools and say they mustnrsquot be put off by the fact that wersquore independentrsquohe says Eventually Grayling hopes the NCHrsquos finances will allow a lsquoneeds-blindrsquo policy when consideringapplicants

Does he see the NCH a mechanism to assist with social mobility Although a believer in the lsquosocial engineering

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aspect of educationrsquo the Master feels the lsquoleveling of the playing fieldrsquo is something that should be done at theprimary and secondary level lsquoIt is not the duty of universities to be trying to correct historical social injustices itshould be the business of institutions to foster excellencersquo

One of the accusations thrown at the New College of Humanities is that it is elitist lsquoThere is nothing wrong withelitismrsquo Grayling explains lsquoThe thing that therersquos something wrong with is exclusivityrsquo Not that his college fallsinto this category lsquoWe are not a refuge Wersquore not an emergency room in a hospital wersquore an educationalinstitution trying to do what it does wellrsquo For his staff to do a lsquovery good jobrsquo the intake has to be limited

During the governmentrsquos time in office the NCH is the only lsquoquality institutionrsquo that has opened mdashlsquo somethingGrayling describes as lsquovery surprisingrsquo He would very much like to see the government dole out similarfreedoms to those wanting to setup universities lsquoLetrsquos see the government being as active as Mr Gove hasbeen in trying to see much more in the way of opportunity in higher educationrsquo he says

The New College of Humanities in Bedford Square

But he is in no rush to take on the bigger universities lsquoIt is terribly important [for us] to grow carefully So if onegrows too fast you might topple over and if you grow too slowly you miss out on opportunitiesrsquo Despite hisreservations the college has doubled in size last year and Grayling he is still hopeful the NCH will be home toover a thousand students within a decade

Grayling has clearly thrown himself fully into his experiment but he is not yet a full time Master Hersquos still thenotorious atheist academic writer lsquoIrsquom busy doing another book I did two last year and thatrsquos a very key part ofwhat I do I think anybody teaching must also be active in their research and in their thinkingrsquo

And we are back to where the NCH fuss started mdash celebrity academics By recruiting names such as RichardDawkins and Niall Ferguson many felt Grayling was charging a premium to be taught by celebrity names Doeshe see any down sides to academics like himself moulding themselves into public figures whose recognitionwith the wider world undoubtedly sells the NCH to prospective pupils lsquoAnybody with the interest and thecapacity who can take what they do in their research and in their teaching and offer it as part of the publicconversationrsquo Grayling says

And with that curt response our time is up As Grayling says goodbye he points upwards at a small cupolaoutside his office lsquoSimply looking upwards makes the spirit soar doesnrsquot itrsquo

The next Spectator debate lsquoA liberal arts education is a waste of time and moneyrsquo Anthony Seldon JuliaHobsbawm Harry Cole and Doug Richard will go head-to-head on 4 March Click here to book tickets

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AC Grayling Coffee House interview Michael Gove New College of Humanities UK politics

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