High quality long-form journalism on “The future of learning and the independent scholar”, from Karl Schmude in The Spectator Australia…

“In this essay I will focus on three things – firstly, to sketch the contribution of the independent scholar to the world of learning in the past, and more broadly to the world of culture; secondly, to reflect on changes in university and academic life that have affected the capacity, and even the existence, of the independent scholar; and thirdly, to highlight the potential for independent scholarship in present-day culture, given that the university has now come to dominate the world of learning, and even of vocational training.”

The British edition of The Spectator sporadically nips behind a paywall, but this is from the Australian edition and is free for me.

Schmude is writing from a Catholic perspective, so the essay entertains a few hobby-horses which canter around aimlessly for a few lines, but when he’s sticking to the topic it’s a stimulating read. Worth it for the phase “immune to the insinuations of conformism” alone…

… he was largely immune to the insinuations of conformism.