The roles of cooperation and choice in higher education are discussed in papers compiled from the 1977 Annual Conference of the University Teaching Methods Unit of the University of London. Financial constraints, a movement away from narrow specialist courses, effectiveness of interdisciplinary courses, instructional innovations, and changes in society are cited as factors that have made cooperation and choice in higher education an important issue. It is suggested that cooperative programs and freedom of choice support the view that higher education is for life and should not be concerned only with finding the most efficient and effective way of developing specific skills and the mastery of particular bodies of knowledge. The papers include: What is an Academic Discipline? (Sinclair Goodlad); Academic Cooperation in Britain (Tony Becher); Current and Future Developments with Joint Courses (Iain Bride); The London University Course Unit System (Roy Cox); Cooperation in Course Teams at the Open University (John Mason); The Cooperative Use of Open University Materials (Gerald Normie); Across the Binary Line: Establishing a Joint Postgraduate Diploma in a Polytechnic and Two Universities (Chris Parkin); Freedom to Learn? Problems of Cooperation and Choice in Independent Study (Paul Ramsden); Students, Choice and Problems (Ruth Deitch); Inter-Institutional Cooperation: A Perspective from the United States (Richard Miller); and Higher Education Cooperation in the European Community (Ronald Martin). (SF)