I have the honour to address you today in this lecture founded to cherish the memory of L. T. Hobhouse, who was the first professor of sociology in this University and in these islands. He devoted his life to extending the study of social development within the framework of those evolutionary theories which had contained so much of Victorian social thought. He discerned a ‘self-conscious evolution of humanity’, found ‘therein a meaning and an element of purpose for the historical process which has led up to it’, and concluded that the ‘slowly wrought out dominance of mind in things is the central fact of evolution’. His fundamental thesis was that humanity had for the first time reached the stage of self-direction. Hobhouse's approach to sociology was itself a protest against sterile separatism either among the several social sciences or between them and the world of everyday affairs. He was a main contributor in his day to the principles of constructive liberalism and a leading exponent of the ideal of democratic equality. He sought for himself a unity of academic theory and social practice through his lifelong commitments as a journalist and commentator as well as an active participant in the work of Trade Boards and other institutions of the labour market. I do not therefore feel that I should apologize for taking as the theme of this memorial lecture present-day anxieties, enthusiasms and confusions about sexual conduct in their bearing upon Hobhouse's ideals of the liberation of the individual, of self-direction and of democratic equality.

Within the original published article the acknowledgements section was sadly omitted. The following acknowledgement should have been included

Education is absorbing an increasing share of the nation's resources. The body of research on the subject is vast. Yet its impact on policy has been diffuse and difficult to assess. Studies directly focused on policy issues are rare. The primary aim of this paper is to suggest some areas where research is needed in view of emerging policy considerations. To put such a discussion in its context we begin by briefly examining the extent to which research has had an impact on education policy. We use ‘policy’ here to mean political and administrative decision-making. We conclude with some remarks on the funding and initiation of educational research.