Mal Fletcher comments

For a Millennial generation that has largely been told it is uniquely gifted, highly valued and will be free to pursue its greatest dreams, this is tough to take. Middle-class parents, who expected their children to receive a better education than they did, also find it difficult to adjust to and will soon start making more of a noise about it.

We can expect to hear many more stories emerging about the perceived short-sightedness, greed or mismanagement of colleges and universities in coming months.

In short, during this time of uncertainty and austerity, every major societal institution is being called into question. There is no hankering after change for change's sake and people distrust calls for change that appear opportunistic.

But people are looking for something solid to lean on, some sense of reassurance that while the economy is weak other aspects of the social order remain robust.

Leaders in business (particularly banking), government, press and media, police, the courts, education and religion have discovered that public trust is desperately difficult to recapture once it has been compromised.

Some economists foresee a period of at best stagnant growth lasting as long as five years or more. On a deeper, psychological and social level, it may last even longer unless there is a conscious effort on the part of institutional leaders to regain public trust.

This will require something other than a 'more of the same' mentality. What will be needed is not management so much as leadership.

Management, whilst vital in every organisation, is focused on the maintaining and tweaking the status quo, efficiently. Leadership, on the other hand, often turns accepted wisdom on its head, seeking out new and previously unexplored solutions to challenges.

Management will focus on establishing a structure, whilst leadership will concentrate on building a culture. The questions facing core social institutions right now are questions about culture.

This is why many people are demanding more than new government targets and new layers of bureaucracy to ensure that they're reached.

In a way, this is an opportune time for leaders of all our major institutions to both listen and direct. They need to listen to the voice of what Richard Nixon, perhaps opportunistically called, 'the silent majority'. The values of Middle England must be heard and assimilated into the culture-building of all of our social institutions.

Often, the literati and glitterati, who claim so much attention in the pop-culture and exercise disproportionate influence in the media and politics, are out of step with the values of everyday families.

Indeed, some have expressed surprise at the strength of feeling in the wider community when it comes to demands for stronger criminal sentences and greater help for families.

The workaday majority hasn't, I think, changed its values in the wake of the riots and other scandals of our time. It has refocused them and is making them heard.