In this inaugural conversation marking his appointment as Chancellor of Ralston College, Iain McGilchrist joins President Stephen Blackwood to reflect on why institutions of higher education matter and what has gone wrong in the contemporary university.
Dr McGilchrist argues that universities once served as cultural anchors, forming the whole human being, but increasingly narrowed their vision through specialization, bureaucratic constraint, and an overemphasis on utility.
The conversation centers around tradition as a living handing-on rather than a coercive obligation inherited from the past. Dr McGilchrist reminds us that creativity and original thinking emerge through form and constraints, not their absence. Rather than treating education as the delivery of information or vocational training, he suggests that genuine learning takes place by removing the obstacles to what already lives within the student, enabling a profound and unique course of development. He emphasizes the importance of difficulty and effort, relational teaching, and the spark communicated by those teachers who open windows to a broader horizon.
The conversation goes on to examine the prevailing narratives in academia, particularly reduction and computation, which risk flattening human life into utility, data, and procedure. McGilchrist distinguishes information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, arguing that wisdom depends upon one’s lived experience, sustained attention, and a cultivated disposition toward reality itself. Connected to the past while building a vibrant community in the present-day, Dr McGilchrist acknowledges Ralston as a reason for hope, grounded in its commitment to free thinking, depth of study, and hard work.
Applications for Ralston College’s MA in the Humanities are now open. Learn more and apply today at www.ralston.ac/apply
