Coda

Abstract

As the contributions to this Volume illustrate, trust is used in a wide range of contexts and with a variety of meanings in higher education. In line with this, the approaches to ‘trust’ used in the various chapters of this Volume vary widely, from structural versions, to existential and psychological ones, with varieties in between. In addition, the relation between social trust and trust at the individual level has been discussed in a number of chapters. While trust at both levels has remained high in Norway and other Nordic countries, in other countries, including the UK, both have declined. The de-cline in levels of trust in the UK has been accompanied by the emergence of an audit culture designed to augment trust, but which, at its core, creates alternatives to trust, favouring external standards, control and sanctions. This changes the disposition of trustworthiness to one of compliance to rules and regulations: it allows expertise to be placed not in the wise and the worthy, but in the hands of technicians and pragmatists, as is further discussed in this chapter.

Among the phenomena that characterize the early twenty-first century, the most significant must be the disappearance of the landmarks that society uses to find its bearings, and the increasing difficulty that individuals have in visualizing an optimistic future for themselves – a feeling exacerbated by following a daily spectacle of wars and mass migrations

Winand (2018: 221)