Religious bias

Book section : Chapter

This is one of 10 papers presented at the conference of the Society for Research into Higher Education examining aspects of bias in higher education. This paper examines religious bias. The well-established distinction between the structures and processes higher education is used. In the first section of the structures, an attempt is made to describe the possible elements of the fire education system, which might exhibit a religious bias. Apart from Oxbridge, Durham, and Kings London which exhibit elements of religious bias, the main bias element is in the faculties of theology. In terms of processes, relatively little work has been done in Europe and so American evidence is used. The areas discussed include the development of religious attitudes, religion in the curriculum, sex differences, student beliefs, staff beliefs, and the effects of the college environment on religion. The conclusion drawn is that in the majority of institutions in this country, the processes of higher education appear to work implicitly against religious beliefs and practices. A very long bibliography which covers all the articles has had to be added in order that the details of the references in this article can be accessed.

Authors: Gay, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Society for Research in to Higher Education
• Host title: Is higher education fair? Papers presented to the 17th annual conference of the Society for Research in to Higher Education 1981
• Pages: 140-194
• Series: Research into Higher Education Proceedings
• Place of publication: Guildford
• Publication date: 1981-01-01
• Edition: 1
• ISBN: 0900868821
• Language: English
• Keywords: Cambridge; religion; polytechnics; staff beliefs; Oxford; colleges; colleges of HE; student beliefs; Faculty of Theology; religious attitudes
• Subtype: Chapter