This paper was delivered to the Association of Commonwealth Universities' Congress at Penang, August 1986. It commences with a discussion of the purposes of universities, and emphasizes the tension between the internal mission of the university -- the preservation, transmission and extension of knowledge, implying scholarly autonomy in academic decision-making -- and the external forces requiring a responsiveness to community requirements and national objectives. This tension is never fully resolved, but a variable point of balance between opposing forces results. The polarity of the internal mission of universities and the external forces acting on them is mirrored in the debate about research management. Five major issues in research management are considered: selectivity in supporting individuals, the role of national objectives, single versus pluralist funding, pure versus applied research, concentration versus dispersion. Finally, the importance of universities maintaining priority in undertaking disinterested fundamental research is stressed.
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