A.C. Grayling’s proposed New College for the Humanities has a website here. For those who haven’t yet heard the news, it will charge £18,000 per year, have a list of 14 ‘star’ academics who will be involved in teaching to some extent, but a larger number of more junior people doing the bulk of the actual education. From the founding statement:-

The humanities provide personal enrichment, intellectual training, breadth of vision, and the well-informed, sharply questioning cast of mind needed for success in this complex and competitive world.

Funny how ‘enrichment’ is the first thing it will provide; and who told them that a picture of Grayling was the best thing to have on the website? This is a very worrying development, and there is opposition already being mobilised.

Nina Power is already on the case providing a critique and lots of links to discussions and counter-movements. See her Infinite Thought blog. Mary Beard also discusses why it will be different from Oxbridge here. And there is a discussion at Brian Leiter’s blog here.

Update 12.45: Crooked Timber asks a good question here.