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For some time (around 100 years), the dominant in¯uence in the shaping of curricula has been that of the academics in their separate knowledge ® elds. In the contemporary world, that academic hegemony is dissolving as curricula become subject to two contending patterns of change. Firstly, in a mass higher education system, there will be tendencies towards increased diversity in the components of curricula, the positioning of the providing institution being just one in¯uence to which are added manifold`external' in¯uences, such as a growing student market and the interests of employers. Secondly, and in contradistinction to such diversity, as the state looks to see a greater responsiveness towards the world of work, it is possible that a universal shift in the direction of performativity is emerging: what counts is less what individuals know and more what individuals can do (as represented in their demonstrable`skills').Hitherto, systematic attention to curricula as such in higher education has been barely evident. Accordingly, curricula are taking on ad hoc patterns that are the unwitting outfall of this complex of forces at work, diversifying and universalising asÐ at the same timeÐ these forces are. In consequence, curricula will be unlikely to yield the human qualities of being that the current age of supercomplexity requires.

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Although there is a popular conception that research enhances teaching, evidence of such synergistic relationships is inconclusive. Recent research, undertaken as part of the Higher Education Funding Council for England's (HEFCE) fundamental review of research policy and funding, indicated that there are a range of relationships -both positive and negative -between teaching and research. While the ideal relationship might be perceived by many academics to be a positive one, there are a number of factors that shape the ways in which teaching and research can have a negative influence on each other, or even be driven apart. These factors include pressures to compartmentalize teaching and research through accountability and funding mechanisms, management strategies of academic staff time that treat teaching and research separately, and the competition for scarce resources. If teaching and research are to complement each other, new ways of managing the teaching and research relationship need to be considered.

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