Following the warm reception given to The Idea of Education, a volume of papers in this same Rodopi Series a second conference around similar themes was held at Oxford University and this book is the result. This edited book provides the reader with a fairly representative, coherent and cohesive statement of the 2003 Oxford conference. Quoting the Chancellor of Paris University with regretting that in the old days ... lectures were more frequent ... but now the time taken for lectures is being spent in meetings and discussions our keynote Frank McMahon made the profound observation that some of the issues around education have been with us for a surprisingly long time. Notwithstanding the longevity of some questions concerning education, this book details and examines contemporary educational practice and theory and as such it is a very important work. Dr David Seth Preston is Reader in Information Ethics at the University of East London, London, UK. His interests include: the legal implication, social issues and ethics of technology; the development and future of the university as an institution; and managerialism with all its ramifications.