tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/role-of-universities-9307/articlesRole of Universities – The Conversation2022-02-03T19:08:33Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1759202022-02-03T19:08:33Z2022-02-03T19:08:33ZRemaking universities: notes from the sidelines of catastrophe<p>Can we grieve not for a person but for an institution? Should we be angry over possibilities destroyed, young talents denied a chance to flourish? Is there any point in lamenting greed, short-sightedness, the brutality of power?</p>
<p>As I write this, in September 2021, Australian higher education is <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-spending-recovery-budget-leaves-universities-out-in-the-cold-160439">in a deeper hole</a> than it has been since the 1950s, when the creaky collection of universities inherited from colonial times, under severe stress, was rescued by the Menzies government. I worked in that rebuilt sector as student, teacher and researcher for about 50 years. Then I retired and wrote a book called, with a mixture of irony and hope, <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/08/25/book-review-the-good-university-what-universities-actually-do-and-why-its-time-for-radical-change-by-raewyn-connell/">The Good University</a>.</p>
<p>In the past couple of years I’ve watched the COVID-19 pandemic place huge new demands on university workers – my colleagues and friends – who had already come <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-uni-teachers-were-already-among-the-worlds-most-stressed-covid-and-student-feedback-have-just-made-things-worse-162612">under heavy stress</a>. This is a brief reflection on what has happened and why, and how we might do better.</p>
<h2>The history matters</h2>
<p>We’ve only had a national public university system for two generations; the sector has been through mighty changes in a short span. At first, Australian universities were separately funded by the colonial and state governments that set them up. </p>
<p>Building a national system made sense under the agenda of modernisation, industrialisation and nation-building that was more or less shared by Liberal and Labor parties in the postwar decades. High-school enrolments boomed in the 1950s and undergraduate enrolments followed, spurring governments to launch new universities as well as expand the older ones. National co-ordinating bodies were established. </p>
<p>At the same time there was a spurt in higher degree studies, giving Australia, for the first time, a capacity to produce its own research workforce. This was, potentially, a revolutionary change for the economy and society – a potential never realised.</p>
<p>Universities in the 1950s and 1960s were not comfortable places. They were run by an oligarchy of male professors who were linked, especially in faculties of law, medicine and engineering, with professional establishments outside. The odour of the British Empire still hung around academic life. Curricula were monocultural, despite the mass immigration of Australia’s postwar decades and the presence of Indigenous cultures. </p>
<p>There’s <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_University_Experience.html?id=edAsAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">research</a> showing that many of the students were quite alienated from these institutions. The majority were enrolled in bread-and-butter “pass” degrees; they listened to lectures and sat for exams but got little attention from academic staff. Only a minority were in honours streams with a more challenging agenda. </p>
<p>Through the 1960s, students increasingly became politicised in groups that opposed the war in Vietnam, supported Aboriginal causes and demanded democratic reform of the universities themselves.</p>
<p>When the Whitlam government took over the entire funding of universities in the 1970s and abolished fees, the stage was set for further expansion. New suburban and regional universities were launched, and the combination of rapid growth and new institutions made space for experiments in curriculum and teaching methods. New fields such as urban studies, environmental studies, women’s studies, information science and molecular biology opened up. </p>
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<img alt="Aerial view of Deakin University's Waurn Ponds campus" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443366/original/file-20220131-13-die0ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443366/original/file-20220131-13-die0ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443366/original/file-20220131-13-die0ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443366/original/file-20220131-13-die0ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443366/original/file-20220131-13-die0ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443366/original/file-20220131-13-die0ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443366/original/file-20220131-13-die0ir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The opening of Deakin University was part of the 1970s expansion and diversification of the university system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deakin_University">Bob T/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-century-that-profoundly-changed-universities-and-their-campuses-151765">A century that profoundly changed universities and their campuses</a>
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<p>Both the students and the university workforce became more diverse. Yet universities remained privileged institutions, gateways to the elite professions. Most vocational education was the business of TAFE (Technical and Further Education) colleges and the Australian equivalent of polytechnics, the CAEs (Colleges of Advanced Education).</p>
<p>By the mid-1980s, as the political system shifted towards a free-market agenda, a new kind of pressure was exerted on education. At the end of the decade, Labor’s education minister, John Dawkins, introduced dramatic changes for universities. Fees were restored, the CAEs were folded into the university system in a chaotic free-for-all of amalgamations and takeovers, co-ordinating and consultative bodies were ditched, and university administrators were encouraged to become corporate-style managers and entrepreneurs.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-just-blame-the-libs-for-treating-universities-harshly-labors-1980s-policies-ushered-in-government-interference-163880">Don't just blame the Libs for treating universities harshly. Labor's 1980s policies ushered in government interference</a>
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<h2>The rise of universities as competing businesses</h2>
<p>To do him justice, Dawkins wanted to widen access to universities. Basically, he instigated a fresh expansion of the system by beginning to privatise it. Though a less obvious privatisation than the outright sale of Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank, this would have huge consequences in the long run. </p>
<p>University enrolments did grow, while the proportion of public funding in universities fell. Fees rose steadily, and student debt – more or less hidden by the deferred payments of HECS and then HELP – grew. </p>
<p>Some universities became heavily dependent on fees from overseas students. University managers’ salaries and bonuses rose steeply, losing any connection with university workers’ pay packets. (By 2019, Australian vice-chancellors’ <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/average-australian-v-cs-pay-smashes-through-a1-million-barrier">average package was a million dollars a year</a>, very high by global standards.) </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-australian-vice-chancellors-pay-came-to-average-1-million-and-why-its-a-problem-150829">How Australian vice-chancellors' pay came to average $1 million and why it's a problem</a>
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<iframe title="Ratio of Australian VC to lecturer pay, 1975 – 2018" aria-label="Interactive line chart" id="datawrapper-chart-ARDd2" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ARDd2/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The system began to split, with a cabal of older universities declaring themselves an elite – the “Group of Eight”, derisively known as the Sandstones. Universities were gradually redefined as market-oriented, competing firms rather than co-operating parts of a public service. </p>
<p>More and more executives and directors from for-profit companies were appointed to university councils, bringing their business connections and their business ideology. University managers centralised decision-making in their own hands, imposing “performance” demands on staff who had previously been trusted to do their work as professionals. </p>
<p>Managers increasingly saw their younger workforce not as the teachers, researchers and operations staff of the future but as a budget cost needing to be reined in. The result has been a massive <a href="https://theconversation.com/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models-147555">casualisation of the teaching workforce</a>, outsourcing of more and more general and professional staff, and a growing distrust between the university workforce and its managers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/2-out-of-3-members-of-university-governing-bodies-have-no-professional-expertise-in-the-sector-theres-the-making-of-a-crisis-171952">2 out of 3 members of university governing bodies have no professional expertise in the sector. There's the making of a crisis</a>
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<h2>Exploring the role of universities</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443370/original/file-20220131-116343-17d8foa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of The Good University" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443370/original/file-20220131-116343-17d8foa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443370/original/file-20220131-116343-17d8foa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443370/original/file-20220131-116343-17d8foa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443370/original/file-20220131-116343-17d8foa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443370/original/file-20220131-116343-17d8foa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1210&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443370/original/file-20220131-116343-17d8foa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1210&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443370/original/file-20220131-116343-17d8foa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1210&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Raewyn Connell’s The Good University was published in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/the-good-university/">Monash University Publishing</a></span>
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<p>This was the situation when I wrote The Good University, in the years after a long industrial struggle at the University of Sydney – an enterprise-bargaining affair in which management tried hard to degrade our conditions of employment. Meditating on the picket line, I thought that university workers had been on the back foot too long, responding to every policy disaster from Canberra or aggression from management. To shift the terms of debate required serious rethinking of what these institutions were. </p>
<p>I tried to re-examine the work that universities did, their social role, their history (much more varied and interesting than most people know), and what alternatives to the dominant model could be found for curriculum, control and social purpose. I thought we needed, above all, fresh ideas about the kind of university that would be good to work in, good to study in and worth fighting for.</p>
<p>Well, the book had been out for a year, and I was in the United States on a tour to publicise and discuss it, when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. I scrambled home on one of the last scheduled Qantas flights and went straight into self-isolation.</p>
<p>Nothing could isolate the universities from the pandemic. In Australia as overseas, campuses were closed as lockdowns of regions and cities began. University staff worked very hard to shift courses online, and that intricate work is still under way nearly two years later. Students too had to change their routines and methods, learning to work from home, learning to study in isolation and needing their own access to the internet.</p>
<p>These changes happened worldwide, but the crash was particularly brutal in Australia. The national government, so slow to organise a vaccination program, rushed to close the borders – that was its primary response to the pandemic, eerily matching its response to asylum seekers. </p>
<p>Border closures suddenly cut off the flow of overseas students, who before 2020 had been paying about half the total fee income received by Australian universities. This plunged many institutions into financial trauma – one reason for their heavy job losses, now <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-13/covid-job-cuts-at-universities-prompting-fears-for-future/100447960">estimated at 40,000</a> across the higher education sector.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-2-years-of-covid-how-bad-has-it-really-been-for-university-finances-and-staff-172405">After 2 years of COVID, how bad has it really been for university finances and staff?</a>
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<h2>No sympathy or support from government</h2>
<p>I doubt that the Morrison government worried about this effect. When the JobKeeper scheme was introduced in the first half of 2020, subsidising businesses to keep their workers employed during the pandemic, the government carefully excluded universities. </p>
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<p>In June the same year it revealed its ideas about higher education in a document called the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">Job-Ready Graduates Package</a>. It’s the most miserable excuse for a higher education policy in the 80 years that such documents have been written in Australia. In the name of vague “national priorities”, the Job-ready Graduates Package arbitrarily doubled fees for arts and humanities degrees, cut overall support for areas (such as nursing and education) that it claimed to encourage, introduced <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-is-making-job-ready-degrees-cheaper-for-students-but-cutting-funding-to-the-same-courses-141280">perverse trade-offs</a> likely to reduce support for research and, in the background, cut government support for the whole sector.</p>
<p>What is going on here? In general terms, both the Coalition and Labor have been reducing the capacities of the public sector for a generation; this is another step in the same direction. </p>
<p>More specifically, there is a culture-wars agenda. The reactionary wing of the Coalition, in step with the Murdoch media, doesn’t like humanities and social sciences, basically because they encourage critical thinking (called “cultural Marxism” in recent right-wing rhetoric). Accordingly, the policy makes humanities and social sciences more difficult to access and burdens those who do with heavier debt.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly there’s an attitude that flows from overall economic strategy. When the Menzies government expanded higher education, the new funding made sense within the state-guided industrial development strategy of the time. That development strategy was abandoned in the neoliberal wave of the 1980s in favour of deregulation, “opening” of the Australian economy and a search for comparative advantage in global markets. </p>
<p>The industries with big comparative advantages in the short term were mining coal, mining iron ore, mining other kinds of rocks, running sheep and cattle, and growing wheat. These are industries with low demand for highly educated workers and little demand for a research capacity in Australia, since their technology is imported. In the logic of free-market fundamentalism, Australia hardly needs universities at all.</p>
<p>It might be politically embarrassing to close them down, but it’s easy to see why in 2020 the Coalition government would refuse JobKeeper subsidies and leave universities and university workers to sink or swim in the pandemic. It’s not clear that the Labor leadership would have done anything very different.</p>
<h2>Public still believes in the public university</h2>
<p>Yet there is considerable popular support for higher education. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, universities and colleges around the world were teaching 200 million students, representing a vast increase in recent decades. Domestic demand for university places has held up in Australia, despite the pandemic. </p>
<p>Managers and governments might treat universities as competitive firms, but the public still tends to see them as a public service. Universities do well in surveys of public trust in various institutions.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-widens-gap-between-government-and-australians-view-of-education-148991">Pandemic widens gap between government and Australians' view of education</a>
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<p>Universities could have a more secure position in the economy, the culture and public policy. To reach this new position would take more than a public-relations effort. It would need a serious reconstruction of the way universities work as organisations and the way they serve their public.</p>
<p>It’s highly unlikely that Universities Australia, the organisation that claims to be “the voice of Australia’s universities”, would support reconstruction: it represents the managers who benefit from the current regime. But managers aren’t the only people on campus. There are multiple groups and different interests. </p>
<p>The National Tertiary Education Union, which represents the bulk of university staff, has been discussing alternatives for the sector and paying more attention to <a href="https://theconversation.com/unis-offered-as-few-as-1-in-100-casuals-permanent-status-in-2021-why-arent-conversion-rules-working-for-these-staff-172046">casualisation</a>. Student organisations, too, could support a different future.</p>
<p>Let’s consider just one aspect of the work done in universities. The commonest image of university teaching is a lecture. Holding forth to students sitting in neat rows is what professors and lecturers are supposed to do, even if the podium is replaced with a screen. But that’s not the heart of higher education.</p>
<p>University teaching builds a relationship between groups of students who have adult intellectual capacities, and the complex structure of research-based knowledge. It does not simply train young people for current jobs; it educates graduates who can think for themselves from a base of solid knowledge and relevant method. </p>
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<p>The process needs co-operation across the university workforce, a supportive environment and an intricate, two-way learning process between teachers and students. That can’t be commanded from above nor automated from outside. Universities work from below, and that is their strength. There is democratic potential in the nature of the work itself.</p>
<h2>The good university isn’t a lost cause</h2>
<p>There has been “crisis” talk about universities for a generation. I was sceptical of it, but I have to say that the language of crisis makes more sense now. The riotous growth of managerial power, the level of distrust between management and the workforce, the stresses on university workers, their increasingly precarious employment, government hostility or indifference, plus the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – that’s a more toxic combination than I have ever seen before. </p>
<p>But, classically, a “crisis” is not just a threatening situation. It’s a turning point, which may be for the worse or for the better.</p>
<p>For the better – how? There’s a need for imagination, creating new models of university life and work. There’s a need for internal reform, for industrial democracy. There’s a need for policy work, for more stable funding and more secure jobs. There’s certainly a need for more rational co-operation among universities. There’s a need for more effective support from universities’ multiple constituencies. And underlying all of these, there’s a need to organise – among university workers, among students and their families, and beyond.</p>
<p>Coming back to the questions I raised at the start, yes, there is reason to grieve for what’s been done to institutions that were flourishing, though flawed. And there’s reason for anger at what’s been done to a whole generation of university workers. This wasn’t necessary, and it isn’t necessary now. </p>
<p>It won’t be easy to turn the situation around, but it can happen. Good universities are possible, if we are determined to make them.</p>
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<p><em>This article is an edited extract, republished with permission, from <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/editions/learning-curves/">Griffith Review 75: Learning Curves</a> edited by Ashley Hay.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raewyn Connell is a life member of the National Tertiary Education Union. She is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney, and in the past has worked at Flinders University of South Australia and Macquarie University in Sydney, as well as several universities overseas.</span></em></p>After 50 years as a university teacher, researcher and student, Raewyn Connell wrote a book, The Good University. Today, universities face a more toxic set of challenges than she has ever seen before.Raewyn Connell, Professor Emerita (social science), University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1603462021-06-02T20:05:43Z2021-06-02T20:05:43ZUniversities’ relevance hinges on academic freedom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403925/original/file-20210602-17-16yht5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C3190%2C2400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/school-morning-737683123">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Academic freedom is widely championed as the foundation of a <a href="https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/the-good-university/">good university</a>. It is seen as vital in speaking “truth to power” – to borrow from influential political philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/">Hannah Arendt</a> – and in ensuring universities are oriented towards the common good, not select elite interests. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403911/original/file-20210602-19-yb02si.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="cover of Australian Universities' Review" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403911/original/file-20210602-19-yb02si.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403911/original/file-20210602-19-yb02si.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403911/original/file-20210602-19-yb02si.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403911/original/file-20210602-19-yb02si.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403911/original/file-20210602-19-yb02si.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403911/original/file-20210602-19-yb02si.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403911/original/file-20210602-19-yb02si.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Australian Universities’ Review special issue, Academic Freedom’s Precarious Future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.aur.org.au/current/ebook">Australian Universities' Review</a></span>
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<p>Academic freedom also ensures universities can lead research, education and public debates that are responsive to today’s global challenges and crises, ensuring their relevance in a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/45596988/Reimagining_global_citizenship_education_for_a_volatile_uncertain_complex_and_ambiguous_VUCA_world_2021_">volatile</a> and complex world. In this way, universities help prepare graduates not simply for a career but also for a meaningful life in our “<a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/Beyond-the-usual-debates%3A-Creating-the-conditions-for-academic-freedom-to-flourish-%28AUR-63-01%29-22706">uncertain and unequal world</a>”.</p>
<p>The latest special issue of Australian Universities’ Review is devoted to <a href="http://www.aur.org.au/current/ebook">Academic Freedom’s Precarious Future</a>. Contributing authors identify how the pressures on universities in Australia and overseas are hindering academic freedom. The consequences are dire and broad-ranging. These trends raises questions about just who, and what interests, universities are intended to serve. </p>
<p>Under this shadow, this special issue asks: what are the <a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/Beyond-the-usual-debates%3A-Creating-the-conditions-for-academic-freedom-to-flourish-%28AUR-63-01%29-22706">conditions in which academic freedom can flourish</a>? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-funding-changes-are-meddling-with-the-purpose-of-universities-141133">The government's funding changes are meddling with the purpose of universities</a>
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<h2>Entangled with corporate and political interests</h2>
<p>Since their foundation in the 19th and early 20th centuries in Australia, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131946.2019.1666717">universities have been tied</a> to the political concerns of the settler colonial nation state and the economic interests of global capitalism. Settler colonial power has always ensured its interests are <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/26717/">woven into the fabric of universities</a> (alongside other institutions). The rise of corporate and neoliberal agendas over recent decades has reinforced these dynamics. </p>
<p>Universities have become further entangled with vested interests, including the private sector and philanthro-capital, such as the controversial <a href="https://theconversation.com/western-civilisation-history-teaching-has-moved-on-and-so-should-those-who-champion-it-97697">Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation</a>. As <a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/Corporate-power-and-academic-freedom-%28AUR-63-01%29-22711">Andrew Bonnell</a> and <a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/Freedom-in-the-university-fiefdom-%28AUR-63-01%29-22709">Richard Hil</a> set out in this special issue, these developments enable corporate and <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/03/17/tudge-introduces-uni-free-speech-laws-a-throwback-to-a-forgotten-culture-war/">political</a> influence across research, curriculum and the very infrastructure of university campuses. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/anu-stood-up-for-academic-freedom-in-rejecting-western-civilisation-degree-99189">ANU stood up for academic freedom in rejecting Western Civilisation degree</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The spread of neoliberal managerialism has also created a workplace culture of hyper-surveillance. This includes rigid performance appraisals, the use-value of research assessed via “impact” criteria and other metrics, as well as student evaluations that can affect educators’ careers. This bears down upon university staff and <a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/Freedom-in-the-university-fiefdom-%28AUR-63-01%29-22709">crushes academic freedom</a>. </p>
<p>Such practices have emerged alongside what <a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/Precarious-work-and-funding-make-academic-freedom-precarious-%28AUR-63-01%29-22710">Jeannie Rea</a> describes as increasingly precarious work and funding. Academics are encouraged to compete with – rather than care for – one another. This erodes collegiality and collective organising.</p>
<p>These workplace conditions and culture are at odds with the pursuit of academic freedom. Yet rather than turning the spotlight on the structural forces that curtail it, conservative interests frequently hijack debates about academic freedom. This distracts attention from the very real freedoms that are under threat, as <a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/What-crisis-of-academic-freedom%3F-Australian-universities-after-French-%28AUR-63-01%29-22712">Rob Watts</a> argues.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-fake-free-speech-crisis-could-imperil-academic-freedom-144272">How a fake 'free speech crisis' could imperil academic freedom</a>
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<h2>A crucial issue in times of crisis</h2>
<p><a href="https://antipodeonline.org/2021/02/01/the-pangolin-and-the-coal-mine/">Crisis is now all too familiar</a>, threatening ecologies, human life and livelihoods. We are grappling with the climate emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic, structural racism, sexual violence and more. These are all redefining our relations with one another, including both the human and non-human world. </p>
<p>In the midst of such crises, contributors to this <a href="http://www.aur.org.au/current/contents">special issue</a> consider the purpose and responsibilities of universities, as well as the rights and interests they might support. The defence of academic freedom is identified as being vital to, and intertwined with, teaching, research, advocacy and service that are responsive to the conditions of our volatile world. </p>
<p>Academic freedom can provide the mandate for universities – their staff, students and graduates – to move through the world with purpose, care, and even love. This includes acting on the responsibilities that come with recognising that universities are part of, and in relationship with, diverse ecologies, people and the <a href="https://indigenousx.com.au/chelsea-bond-the-irony-of-the-aboriginal-academic/">unceded territories</a> on which they sit.</p>
<h2>Creating the conditions for academic freedom</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/Precarious-work-and-funding-make-academic-freedom-precarious-%28AUR-63-01%29-22710">Jeannie Rea</a> describes the vital work of <a href="https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/">Scholars at Risk</a> in defending academic freedom. They include those who speak out against military, religious and state regimes, often jeopardising their lives to do so. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/A-self-selection-mechanism-for-appointed-external-members-of-WA-University-Councils-%28AUR-63-01%29-22708">Gerd E. Schroder-Turk</a> provides the compelling case for good governance. His essay includes a critique of the ways university councils are able to self-select external members. As a result, universities are increasingly governed by those with little expertise in teaching and research. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/governing-universities-tertiary-experience-no-longer-required-145439">Governing universities: tertiary experience no longer required</a>
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<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403927/original/file-20210602-27-1mefnek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403927/original/file-20210602-27-1mefnek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403927/original/file-20210602-27-1mefnek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403927/original/file-20210602-27-1mefnek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403927/original/file-20210602-27-1mefnek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403927/original/file-20210602-27-1mefnek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403927/original/file-20210602-27-1mefnek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403927/original/file-20210602-27-1mefnek.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peter Greste is among the contributors to the special issue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span>
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<p><a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/Slippery-beasts%3A-Why-academic-freedom-and-media-freedom-are-so-difficult-to-protect-%28AUR-63-01%29-22707">Peter Greste and Fred D’Agostino</a> differentiate academic freedom from broader freedom of speech debates. They then consider some of the responsibilities that might underpin academic freedom. </p>
<p>In the afterword to this special issue, Canadian scholar <a href="http://www.aur.org.au/article/Beyond-the-usual-debates%3A-Creating-the-conditions-for-academic-freedom-to-flourish-%28AUR-63-01%29-22706">Sharon Stein</a> (and member of the <a href="https://decolonialfutures.net/">Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures</a> collective) sets out the conditions in which academic freedom may flourish. This includes valuing diverse knowledges, practising intellectual humility and embracing difficult conversations. It also includes acknowledging our interdependence with one other, and with the non-human world. </p>
<p>The hope is this special issue moves academics, policymakers and diverse publics towards engagement with these ideas, leading to outcomes that support the conditions needed for academic freedom to flourish. This will be vital if universities are to have purpose and a meaningful place in facing the uncertainties of our lifetime. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-open-minds-explores-how-academic-freedom-and-the-public-university-are-at-risk-156213">Book review: Open Minds explores how academic freedom and the public university are at risk</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160346/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristen Lyons is a member of the Australian Greens, and senior research fellow with The Oakland Institute. </span></em></p>In a volatile and uncertain world, academic freedom is the foundation of universities’ capacity to be responsive to all of the challenges we face today.Kristen Lyons, Professor Environment and Development Sociology, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1517652021-02-19T03:54:37Z2021-02-19T03:54:37ZA century that profoundly changed universities and their campuses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383422/original/file-20210209-15-1ybg04u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7951%2C5273&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/melbourne-australia-17-jul-2019-view-1591293259">EQRoy/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This history of the development of universities is the first of two articles on the past and future of the campus. This is a long read, so set aside the time to read it and enjoy.</em></p>
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<p>Once the first atomic bomb exploded on July 16 1945 in New Mexico, the world would never be the same again. Scientists and engineers had turned an obscure principle into a weapon of unprecedented power. <a href="https://www.ucop.edu/laboratory-management/about-the-labs/overview-lanl.html">Los Alamos</a>, the facility where the bomb was designed, was run by the University of California.</p>
<p>This was a turning point for universities. As they increasingly focused on scientific research, the role of universities worldwide – and their campuses – changed. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/think-big-why-the-future-of-uni-campuses-lies-beyond-the-cbd-151766">Think big. Why the future of uni campuses lies beyond the CBD</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Before the first world war, the largest investment on most campuses was the university library. After the second world war, investment shifted decisively to laboratories and equipment. </p>
<p>A key reason for the increasing focus on university research was the lessons of the first world war. After the war, governments of rich countries took an increasingly interventionist role in directing and encouraging the research and development of artificial materials, weapons, defences and medicine. Universities or institutes associated with universities did much of this work. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-and-government-need-to-rethink-their-relationship-with-each-other-before-its-too-late-139963">Universities and government need to rethink their relationship with each other before it's too late</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By 1926, the Council for Science and Industrial Research, the predecessor to the <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/About/History-achievements/Our-history">CSIRO</a>, and the organisation that would become the National Health and Medical Research Council (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_and_Medical_Research_Council#History">NHMRC</a>) had been founded in Australia. </p>
<h2>A gradual turn towards research</h2>
<p>In the UK, many of the older universities were not that keen on applied research. Chemistry, engineering and physics were taught at Oxford between the wars, but by 1939 the chemistry cohort was just over 40 students, of whom “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=faf1nMjVRYwC&printsec=copyright&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=two%20or%20three%20were%20women&f=false">two or three were women</a>”. </p>
<p>It wasn’t until 1937 that Oxford drew up a plan to develop the “Science Area” with new buildings, but in that same year, the university also agreed to reduce its size to avoid a fight with the Town over “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-university-of-oxford-9780199243563?cc=au&lang=en&">further intrusion on the Parks</a>”. </p>
<p>Facilities at Cambridge for physical sciences were slightly better, but not by much, despite its historical focus on mathematics. The <a href="https://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/history/years/rutherford">Cavendish laboratory</a> in which the New Zealander <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1908/rutherford/biographical/">Ernest Rutherford</a> discovered in 1911 that the atom had a nucleus was small, dark, damp and ill-equipped.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383434/original/file-20210210-19-11mlj0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The room used by Ernest Rutherford for his atomic research" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383434/original/file-20210210-19-11mlj0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383434/original/file-20210210-19-11mlj0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383434/original/file-20210210-19-11mlj0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383434/original/file-20210210-19-11mlj0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383434/original/file-20210210-19-11mlj0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383434/original/file-20210210-19-11mlj0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383434/original/file-20210210-19-11mlj0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A century ago, universities provided modest facilities for researchers like Nobel laureate Ernest Rutherford.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Ernest_Rutherfords_laboratory,_early_20th_century._(9660575343).jpg">Science Museum London/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This relative lack of interest in experimental sciences at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxbridge#:%7E:text=Oxbridge%20is%20a%20portmanteau%20of,were%20admitted%20to%20these%20institutions.">Oxbridge</a> was unhelpful for science research in Australia, because our six small state-run universities tended to follow their lead. As an indication of its priorities, the University of Adelaide built its humanities buildings in stone and its much more modest science facilities in brick.</p>
<p>Nobel laureate and University of Adelaide Professor <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1915/wh-bragg/biographical/">W.H. Bragg</a> carried out his pioneering experiments on X-ray crystallography in Adelaide during 1900 to 1908 <a href="https://adelaidia.history.sa.gov.au/places/mitchell-building">in a converted storeroom</a> in the basement of the Mitchell Building. His lab is now a storeroom again. </p>
<h2>The post-war transformations</h2>
<p>The application of university research had been a German strength since well before the first world war with the rise of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldtian_model_of_higher_education">Humboldtian model</a> of higher education, which favoured research over scholarship. A key reason the Allies prevailed in 1945 was that the United States in particular rapidly improved its capacity to carry out and apply research, based on the Humboldtian model. </p>
<p>In 1917, MIT <a href="https://bluejacket.com/usn-usmc_avi_ww1_air_fields.html">established a naval aviation school</a>. The University of Washington <a href="https://bluejacket.com/usn-usmc_avi_ww1_air_fields.html">soon followed</a> MIT’s example. </p>
<p>This decision had a direct bearing on the success of the Boeing company following <a href="https://www.aa.washington.edu/AERL/KWT/history">construction of the Boeing wind tunnel</a> at the University of Washington’s Seattle campus in 1917. It led directly to the development of advanced aerodynamics for the Boeing 247 of 1933, which provided the template for all subsequent commercial airliners. </p>
<p>The Australian university system between the wars offers no such exemplars. The focus on applied research was foreign to the prevailing university culture in Australia at the time. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hannah-forsyth-117941">Hannah Forsyth</a> writes in <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/A_History_of_the_Modern_Australian_Unive/WfGLBQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">A History of the Modern Australian University</a>, not until the 1940s did “scholarly esteem began to move away from ‘mastery’ of disciplines towards the discovery of new knowledge”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boeing 247 aeroplane on the runway" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383425/original/file-20210209-21-1n7d3mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383425/original/file-20210209-21-1n7d3mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383425/original/file-20210209-21-1n7d3mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383425/original/file-20210209-21-1n7d3mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383425/original/file-20210209-21-1n7d3mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383425/original/file-20210209-21-1n7d3mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383425/original/file-20210209-21-1n7d3mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The wartime construction of a wind tunnel at the University of Washington enabled development of the Boeing 247, which provided the template for commercial airliners.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding/7553419160/">Ken Fielding/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>New research facilities and new campuses</h2>
<p>New technologies led to a host of new post-war industries, including commercial aviation, television, plastics, information technology (IT) and advanced health care. The demand for skills to operate these new industries was the primary driver of an explosion in university enrolments.</p>
<p>University science research in Australia only got a serious start in 1946 with the foundation of the Australian National University (ANU) and the Commonwealth Universities Grants Committee, which became the Australian Research Council (<a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/about-arc">ARC</a>). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Australian National University sign on Canberra campus" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383430/original/file-20210209-19-gificp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383430/original/file-20210209-19-gificp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383430/original/file-20210209-19-gificp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383430/original/file-20210209-19-gificp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383430/original/file-20210209-19-gificp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383430/original/file-20210209-19-gificp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383430/original/file-20210209-19-gificp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The founding of the Australian National University in 1946 marked a shift in Australia towards more research-focused universities set on very large campuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/canberra-australia-12-dec-2016-view-739238290">EQRoy/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As Robert Menzies, the prime minister from 1949-66, later <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2028472">wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Second World War brought about great social changes. In the eye of the future observer, the greatest may well provide to be in the field of higher education.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Australia, about 80% of our universities have been founded since the second world war. The growth of the sector has been startling. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384339/original/file-20210215-23-1r5rbxb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="chart showing postwar growth in university student numbers in Australia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384339/original/file-20210215-23-1r5rbxb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384339/original/file-20210215-23-1r5rbxb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384339/original/file-20210215-23-1r5rbxb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384339/original/file-20210215-23-1r5rbxb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384339/original/file-20210215-23-1r5rbxb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384339/original/file-20210215-23-1r5rbxb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384339/original/file-20210215-23-1r5rbxb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-doesnt-have-too-many-universities-heres-why-88386">Australia doesn't have too many universities. Here's why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>All of the institutions founded during the Menzies era were sited on large campuses in the suburbs or beyond. Although mainly Commonwealth-funded, they were designed and delivered by state public works authorities to tight budgets on land provided largely by state governments. UNSW, Monash, Griffith, La Trobe, Flinders and WAIT (now Curtin) share a heritage of economical buildings on large parcels of land.</p>
<p>The key reasons for this approach were to minimise cost and maximise capacity for growth and change. Low to medium-rise buildings on land surplus to state needs maximised bang for buck. Development costs per square metre of building were about half that of a campus in the central business district (CBD) of cities. </p>
<p>This was not a new discovery. The universities of Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech, Tokyo, Wisconsin and Peking, all founded in the 19th century, used this model for similar reasons. </p>
<p>Fortunately, the states were generous with land they didn’t need. Of all the universities built in the Menzies era, only UNSW with 39 hectares has a significant land area constraint. The other universities have at least 50ha and several have well over 100ha. This has given them some headaches, but also lots of options. </p>
<p>Research by ARINA, an architectural firm specialising in higher education, community and public design, shows that virtually all universities built since 1949 – that’s more than 90% of universities in the world – have large campuses with densities less than 500 students per hectare. The University of Bath, built in 1966, is typical of post-war UK universities with 59ha and 16,000 students in 2021, less than 300/ha. </p>
<p>The same is true even in small city-states such as Hong Kong and Singapore. The National University of Singapore has a campus of about 140ha with 37,000 students (264/ha) and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has 55ha with 11,000 students (200/ha).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Campus of National University of Singapore" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383433/original/file-20210210-17-1o6i61p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383433/original/file-20210210-17-1o6i61p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383433/original/file-20210210-17-1o6i61p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383433/original/file-20210210-17-1o6i61p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383433/original/file-20210210-17-1o6i61p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383433/original/file-20210210-17-1o6i61p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383433/original/file-20210210-17-1o6i61p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The National University of Singapore has a campus of about 150ha despite the city-state’s small area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/singapore-17-dec-2017-view-campus-1035392116">EQRoy/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most new universities in Europe, Asia, India and the Middle East still rely on the large campus model. The University of Paris-Saclay, for example, is being built on 189ha of former farmland 15km south of the Paris orbital motorway. </p>
<p>Broad-acre campuses are popular with students as measured by surveys of educational experience such as the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (<a href="https://www.acer.org/au/ausse">AUSSE</a>) and the US National Survey of
Student Engagement (<a href="https://nsse.indiana.edu/nsse/about-nsse/index.html">NESSE</a>). The most popular campuses in Australia are Bond, New England, Griffith and Notre Dame. RMIT and UTS, the highest-ranked CBD campuses <a href="https://www.compared.edu.au">finish in the middle of the pack</a>, a long way behind the leaders. A similar phenomenon can be seen in the UK and the US. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/looking-beyond-the-sandstone-universities-reinvent-campuses-to-bring-together-town-and-gown-87174">Looking beyond the sandstone: universities reinvent campuses to bring together town and gown</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Campus model goes corporate</h2>
<p>The ARINA research indicates broad-acre campus models have also become increasingly part of the physical organisation and accommodation of many commercial operations. </p>
<p>In 2020, 63% of the top 30 US Fortune 500 index and 87% of the top 30 tech companies in the index were located in suburban and extra-urban settings, mostly campuses. This includes well-known tech companies such as Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Tesla and HP, but also less obvious candidates such as Walmart, Exxon Mobil and Amazon. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385178/original/file-20210218-22-lp2pii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing locations of top 20 Fortune 500 tech companies" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385178/original/file-20210218-22-lp2pii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385178/original/file-20210218-22-lp2pii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385178/original/file-20210218-22-lp2pii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385178/original/file-20210218-22-lp2pii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385178/original/file-20210218-22-lp2pii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385178/original/file-20210218-22-lp2pii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385178/original/file-20210218-22-lp2pii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ARINA</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In the UK, 28% of all FTSE 100 companies and 54% of FTSE Techmark 100 companies by market capitalisation are based outside greater London. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385183/original/file-20210219-12-17zt22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing locations of top 20 tech companies in the UK" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385183/original/file-20210219-12-17zt22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385183/original/file-20210219-12-17zt22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385183/original/file-20210219-12-17zt22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385183/original/file-20210219-12-17zt22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385183/original/file-20210219-12-17zt22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385183/original/file-20210219-12-17zt22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385183/original/file-20210219-12-17zt22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ARINA</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The reasons for this are straightforward: capital and operating costs for research-based firms are lower outside a CBD. While some Australian universities are choosing to head into the city, much of the new economy appears to be heading for the suburbs. It’s happening for the same reason that universities started to migrate there over a hundred years ago. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-the-corporate-campus-84370">The rise of the corporate campus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151765/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Hanmer is managing director of ARINA and a member of the Australian Institute of Architects, the Association of Consulting Architects, the Architectural Association and SAHANZ. </span></em></p>More than 90% of universities in the world have been built since 1949. The vast majority built large campuses outside city centres, and all for much the same reasons.Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1489912020-11-11T19:19:42Z2020-11-11T19:19:42ZPandemic widens gap between government and Australians’ view of education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368770/original/file-20201111-17-jbe33f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5591%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rawpixel/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic is changing Australians’ view of public education, our analysis of <a href="https://www.australianleadershipindex.org">Australian Leadership Index (ALI)</a> data shows. In contrast to the government’s instrumental view of education, with its focus on producing “<a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">job-ready graduates</a>”, the public now takes a wider view of education as a <a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good">public good</a>.</p>
<p>Public education, such as public schools and universities, is understood as serving the interests of the many, not the few. And the importance of ethics and accountability has only become more pronounced throughout the pandemic.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-flaws-in-job-ready-graduates-package-will-add-to-the-turmoil-in-australian-higher-education-147740">3 flaws in Job-Ready Graduates package will add to the turmoil in Australian higher education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The <a href="https://www.australianleadershipindex.org">Australian Leadership Index</a> has tracked <a href="https://theconversation.com/blunders-aside-most-australians-believe-state-premiers-have-been-effective-leaders-during-pandemic-147998">public perceptions of leadership</a> across a number of sectors, including public education, since 2018. We analysed ALI scores for public education through three periods – before COVID, first wave and second wave. </p>
<h2>An intensifying debate about education</h2>
<p>Since the pandemic began, debate about the role of education and its contribution to the public good has intensified. Universities have been at the centre of this debate.</p>
<p>Between January and March, before COVID-19 hit our shores, universities were in the public spotlight due to their <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victorian-universities-offer-fee-discounts-for-chinese-students-affected-by-coronavirus-20200227-p544us.html">reliance on international student fees</a>.</p>
<p>In this period, the <a href="https://www.australianleadershipindex.org/about/">ALI score</a> (our indexed measure of leadership) for public education dipped into the negative (-2) for the first time since we began tracking in September 2018.</p>
<p>During the first wave of COVID-19 (March-June), public discourse focused on the role of universities in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/27/covid-vaccine-uk-oxford-university-astrazeneca-works-in-all-ages-trials-suggest">finding a vaccine</a>. At the same time, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">exclusion of universities from the JobKeeper program</a> forced them into cost-cutting, with implications for <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-universities-face-losing-1-in-10-staff-covid-driven-cuts-create-4-key-risks-147007">research output</a>. More recently, news of <a href="https://theconversation.com/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models-147555">wage theft in universities</a> <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-05/university-of-melbourne-exposed-in-decade-long-wage-theft-case/12519588"> hit the headlines</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-universities-face-losing-1-in-10-staff-covid-driven-cuts-create-4-key-risks-147007">As universities face losing 1 in 10 staff, COVID-driven cuts create 4 key risks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Despite these challenges, the ALI score for education recovered strongly. It hit a peak (+19) in the June quarter and stabilised in the September quarter (+15). </p>
<iframe title="Education leadership ratings over time" aria-label="Interactive line chart" id="datawrapper-chart-8pKvB" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/8pKvB/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<h2>Education and the public good</h2>
<p>Over the past few months, the federal government has brought in sweeping changes intended to encourage students to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The stated aim is to produce “<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-flaws-in-job-ready-graduates-package-will-add-to-the-turmoil-in-australian-higher-education-147740">job-ready graduates</a>” to fuel economic recovery. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-is-making-job-ready-degrees-cheaper-for-students-but-cutting-funding-to-the-same-courses-141280">The government is making ‘job-ready’ degrees cheaper for students – but cutting funding to the same courses</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By contrast, our data show the Australian public takes a wider view of education. </p>
<p>Drawing on nationally representative surveys from September 2018 to September 2020, we statistically modelled how nine different factors have influenced public perceptions of leadership in education institutions.</p>
<p>We then plotted the importance of each factor (vertical axis) against the proportion of Australians who agree education is performing well on that factor (horizontal axis). The results show which factors are important in driving perceptions of education leadership, and also how the sector performs against them. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368533/original/file-20201110-21-1v4o26q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vertical axis shows results of analysis that models impact of each of nine drivers on perceptions of leadership for the greater good. Horizontal axis shows proportion of Australians who believe education institutions show leadership for the greater good to a ‘fairly large’ or ‘extremely large’ extent. Mid points on each axis represent the average importance/performance across the nine drivers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australian Leadership Index</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Notably, Australians see accountability, ethicality and creating social value as highly important for education institutions. The sector performs well against these factors. </p>
<p>By contrast, responsiveness to the needs of society and creating economic value are also important, but the sector underperforms against these factors. </p>
<p>In short, Australians believe that <em>how</em> public education creates value – through demonstrable commitments to ethics and accountability – is as important as the <em>type</em> of value it creates. This reflects an understanding that serving the <a href="https://theconversation.com/whose-interests-why-defining-the-public-interest-is-such-a-challenge-84278">public interest</a> is as much about process as it is about outcome. </p>
<p>Overall, these results suggests a marked discrepancy between how the government and Australians view public education.</p>
<h2>How views changed through the pandemic</h2>
<p>Our data (click on the table to enlarge it) show how Australians’ view of public education changed through the course of the pandemic. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368767/original/file-20201111-13-qybjoy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368767/original/file-20201111-13-qybjoy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368767/original/file-20201111-13-qybjoy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368767/original/file-20201111-13-qybjoy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368767/original/file-20201111-13-qybjoy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368767/original/file-20201111-13-qybjoy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368767/original/file-20201111-13-qybjoy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368767/original/file-20201111-13-qybjoy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>In the period before COVID (January-March), the sector’s apparent accountability, responsiveness to society, and a focus on economic value creation had the most influence on perceptions of the sector’s leadership. </p>
<p>In the first wave (April-June), ethics and balancing the needs of different groups became more important. Accountability, economic value creation and responsiveness to societal needs were also important. Performance scores improved across all five factors. </p>
<p>This possibly reflects the optimistic discourse around vaccine research, producing job-ready graduates and an element of sympathy for universities, as <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/universities-sound-alarm-after-denied-greater-access-to-wage-subsidy-20200406-p54hhc.html">university staff</a> lost their jobs and <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/government-attitude-may-risk-international-student-sector-20200403-p54gxf">international students</a> were <a href="https://theconversation.com/4-out-of-5-international-students-are-still-in-australia-how-we-treat-them-will-have-consequences-145099">left to fend for themselves</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-one-would-even-know-if-i-had-died-in-my-room-coronavirus-leaves-international-students-in-dire-straits-144128">'No one would even know if I had died in my room': coronavirus leaves international students in dire straits</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the second wave (July-September), the focus shifted away from the sector’s economic contributions and its responsiveness to society. Instead, ethics, accountability and balancing the needs of different groups became most important. </p>
<p>Performance scores for balancing the needs of different groups decreased. This possibly reflects the changes to tertiary education funding, which triggered backlash from both domestic and international students.</p>
<h2>Rethinking the role of universities</h2>
<p>Australians have important decisions to make on the role of public education. Rather than positioning public education and universities as a panacea for economic recovery, a wider view is required. </p>
<p>Universities are uniquely positioned to serve the public good. The purpose of education leadership itself has been described as being “<a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429261947">as and for public good</a>”. This insight is reflected in the actions of university benefactors, who are motivated by a belief in the <a href="https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/10/its-in-the-national-interest-to-fund-research.html/">public good that only universities can create</a>.</p>
<p>Although philanthropic support is vital, it is in the national interest to properly fund universities to enable them to serve and enhance the public good as only universities can.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Wheeler has engaged in paid and pro-bono consulting and research relating to issues of applied ethics and gender equality (e.g., Our Watch, Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, VicHealth). She has previously worked for research centres that receive funding from several partner organisations in the private and public sector, including from the Victorian Government. She receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Pallant receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Wilson receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Colin Bednall receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index. He is a Fellow of the APS College of Organisational Psychologists.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vlad Demsar receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p>The way in which Australians think about leadership in the education sector has changed throughout the pandemic. It’s seen as a public good, with ethics and accountability gaining in importance.Melissa A. Wheeler, Senior Lecturer, Department of Management and Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologyJason Pallant, Lecturer of Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologySamuel Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Swinburne University of TechnologyTimothy Colin Bednall, Senior Lecturer in Management, Swinburne University of TechnologyVlad Demsar, Lecturer of Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1494392020-11-04T19:22:20Z2020-11-04T19:22:20ZUniversities in crisis? They’ve been there before, and found a way out<p><em>This is an edited extract of a new history, Australian Universities: A history of common cause, by Gwilym Croucher and James Waghorne (UNSW Press). In the early 1950s the universities faced an acute financial crisis, forcing them to find creative ways to lobby the Menzies government. The outcome was a resounding affirmation of the national importance of universities.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Unresolved problems of Commonwealth support for universities came to a head in 1952, when the funding recommended by the 1950 <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/archive/hefunding">Mills Committee</a> expired. Despite his oft-expressed affection for Australian universities, Robert Menzies’ refusal to appoint a standing committee to manage university funding or new inquiry left future Commonwealth support and funding uncertain. The government’s practice of delaying the passage of the States Grants (Universities) Act until just in time for the following year tested universities’ nerve. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of Australian Universities book" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The new history of Australian universities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/history-australias-universities/">UNSW Press</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Coupled with this uncertainty was the problem of inflation, which had soared after the previous Labor government’s wage controls were lifted. The Commonwealth allocations so precisely calibrated in the middle of 1950 were increasingly inadequate. By 1952, the <a href="https://www.eoas.info/biogs/A000167b.htm">Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee</a> (AVCC, predecessor of Universities Australia) estimated inflation had reduced the effective Commonwealth allocation by “up to 40%”.</p>
<p>In October 1951 universities used the opportunity of the ceremony installing the first ANU chancellor, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bruce-stanley-melbourne-5400">Stanley Melbourne Bruce</a>, to send a deputation to the prime minister to urge him to initiate a “co-ordinated plan of development”. Menzies was unavailable. The visiting vice-chancellors had to be content with <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hasluck-sir-paul-meernaa-18555">Paul Hasluck</a>, minister for territories, as the prime minister’s representative. </p>
<p>The UWA vice-chancellor, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/currie-sir-george-alexander-12384">Sir George Currie</a>, later confessed to other universities that he “was not optimistic regarding the result”. Hasluck indicated the Commonwealth had limited interest in establishing a new committee that might bind it to increasing funding. </p>
<p>Their discreet appeals having failed, universities were compelled to adopt a more public stance. This meant a degree of co-ordinated public action universities had only infrequently practised. The University of Sydney appointed communications professionals to develop the public case. </p>
<p>They were not alone, though, in public advocacy. During a speech on the responsibility of science in the modern world, <a href="https://www.science.org.au/fellowship/fellows/biographical-memoirs/ian-clunies-ross-1899-1959">Ian Clunies Ross</a>, head of the CSIRO and former Sydney professor, “turned an elegant celebration on the traditional role of the university into an urgent appeal for help”.</p>
<p>Facing a pressing funding shortfall, universities took the unprecedented step of preparing a booklet, <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1823662">A Crisis in the Finances and Development of the Australian Universities</a>. Signed by vice-chancellors, it set out a reasoned case on university finances. </p>
<p>The publication shed the previous restraint of the AVCC’s public statements and presented the situation facing universities as a “crisis”. The combination of the loss of Commonwealth funding and rising inflation meant universities were worse off in real terms than they had been in 1939. The booklet presented concerns to the public, and made the case that the public should value universities’ contribution:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Universities are destined to play an increasingly important role in Australian development. Their future is a matter of grave concern to you and to every other member of the community. Yet there is an alarming degree of public apathy regarding their affairs. While they are accepted as an integral part of our educational system, there is little public appreciation of the wide nature of their responsibilities to the community.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The universities argued their role had expanded in the years after the second world war and they now performed many functions of vital national significance. Their tasks of transmitting knowledge to students, along with the training of professionals with technical expertise, such as “architects, engineers, scientists, doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, economists”, were now undertaken to meet national priorities.</p>
<p>Another role was in Commonwealth-supported research. Universities distinguished their contribution from the CSIRO’s mission-oriented investigation of specified problems. Universities had the freedom to advance knowledge and make discoveries where the end result was unknown. Moreover, they were the primary source of “specialist training in professions and science” essential for the national research enterprise. </p>
<p>All these benefits crossed state boundaries and had wide public utility. Research, for example, was not the private work of individuals, but rather provided a “threefold advantage”: in “advancing knowledge”, training research workers for government and industrial employment, and “indirectly maintaining the interest and vigour of the staff with a benefit to teaching standards”. Acknowledging that research did not always produce immediate economic benefits, they argued that their research training provided an essential prerequisite for growth of the economy.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of booklet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The universities distributed 2,000 copies of the Crisis booklet in their campaign to build support for increased funding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-14425612/view?partId=nla.obj-14429355">Trove/National Library of Australia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two thousand copies of the Crisis booklet were distributed to politicians, university governing bodies, professors and others “interested in increasing government support”. A media statement was drafted emphasising the problem of inflation. Journalists were encouraged to quote from the booklet as the official position of Australian universities.</p>
<p>In the wake of the publication of the booklet, Menzies reiterated his support for Australian universities. More promisingly, he indicated broad support for an immediate 20% increase in “second level” Commonwealth assistance, which benefited the smaller universities, and the establishment of a committee to respond to immediate needs and prepare a long-term plan for university development. </p>
<p>Yet by the following February the process had slowed. Universities became increasingly frustrated.</p>
<p>The 1953 Premiers’ Conference was scheduled for the day after the universities met, and the vice-chancellors telegraphed the Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department, Allen Brown: “would it be possible to obtain the Prime Minister’s views on additional assistance for universities in current year”. Brown telephoned in reply that the Premiers’ Conference would be dealing with “weighty problems” and unfortunately would not have time to consider universities’ appeal. </p>
<p>The plight of universities was discussed at the conference and, in response to appeals from Victoria for more support, Menzies replied that they had done well “without a Commonwealth grant”. Left with little recourse, the vice-chancellors again wrote to the prime minister, reiterating their requests.</p>
<p>As universities sought to build a case for federal funds, they faced growing internal pressures to raise academic salaries. These had declined in real terms as inflation eroded their value. Some disciplines struggled to attract quality candidates. </p>
<p>In response, in 1952 staff formed a Federal Council of University Staff Associations of Australia (FCUSAA). In 1953 it pressed universities to support its campaign for wage increases. </p>
<p>In this, universities were hamstrung by their separate relationships with their respective state governments. While some universities, such as Sydney and Melbourne, had independently granted wage increases, others, such as Adelaide and Western Australia, were not in a financial position to do so. Nevertheless, universities supported the proposal with a statement of principle that academic salaries were “inadequate in view of changed economic conditions”.</p>
<p>While the funding impasse continued, the weight of the number of enrolments that had grown since the second world war squeezed operations, leaving little capacity to expand universities’ activities in line with international trends. In response to the deteriorating state of affairs, the AVCC conducted its own survey of the needs of universities to prepare for the appointment of a full government inquiry and to provide greater specificity to universities’ requests for funding in the meantime. The task of compiling a “Survey of University Needs” proved challenging and there was no certainty the members would agree to what emerged.</p>
<p>As the survey was being compiled, the AVCC prepared a public statement on the absolute minimum requirements of Australian universities. The timing was significant. On the eve of the May 29 1954 federal election, Menzies responded that he was “anxious not to involve the Commonwealth government in the internal affairs of universities”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Robert Menzies delivers a speech" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Universities had to work hard to change Prime Minister Robert Menzies’ mind about funding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/PhotoDetail.aspx?Barcode=30922130">National Archives of Australia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The AVCC report sought to answer profound questions about the shape and character of the whole system, such as the “optimum size of a university”, the “essential” facilities, what “special types of university” were necessary, considerations in determining the location of these universities, what residential component was important, what departments were “too expensive to be duplicated”, and where new facilities and departments were needed to overcome “overcrowding”. </p>
<p>It concluded that each should commence with Arts and Science, plus “at least one other faculty reflecting the needs of the district where the university or college is located”. These departments should be headed by professors and as “adequately staffed as possible”. Staff–student ratios should be as low as possible, with 2,500 to 3,000 students considered optimal, even though the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne had already grown to twice this size. </p>
<p>The report also acknowledged that larger universities, with more extensive offerings and a broad range of departments, had stronger reputations. The tension between good education and reputation was difficult to resolve.</p>
<p>At the March 1956 meeting, the AVCC chair, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/paton-sir-george-whitecross-15033">George Paton</a>, announced the plans for university co-ordination would be shelved. He considered them no longer “desirable at the present stage” and went on to explain that Menzies had joined him for a private dinner at the Melbourne staff club, University House, at which he agreed to appoint a new inquiry, subject to approval from the states. Menzies asked universities for a list of names of “persons in the United Kingdom who would be suitable for appointment as chairman of such a committee”.</p>
<p>This breakthrough was greeted with acclamation by universities, which drew up a list at the top of which was the chair of the University Grants Committee in Britain, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murray-sir-keith-27205">Sir Keith Murray</a>. Vice-chancellors had been instrumental in the appointment of Murray, and Murray sought guidance from them upon his arrival. </p>
<p>Universities set out a template for the “ideal conditions” for a visit to an Australian university, including the time for a tour of the facilities and the order in which to speak to interest groups. Each visit began with an official exposition of the university’s submission, followed by informal talks with professorial and then non-professorial staff, then a meeting with student representatives. Finally, a formal meeting would be held with a university’s governing body, with subsequent informal conversations to “clear up points of doubt”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of Keith Murray" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sir Keith Murray agreed with vice-chancellors that ‘the problems appeared to be immediate and large’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Murray,_Baron_Murray_of_Newhaven#/media/File:Baron_Murray_of_Newhaven.jpg">Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Receiving this advice with gratitude, Murray agreed in a way that gave comfort to vice-chancellors that “the problems appeared to be immediate and large”. “Was anybody thinking in revolutionary terms?” he asked.</p>
<p>The universities’ planning work that went into formulating a co-ordinated approach was not wasted. It formed the basis of the AVCC submission to the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/archive/hefunding">Murray Committee</a>. Drafted by Paton, the report emphasised the need for “long-range” planning, so universities were not “faced with a similar problem in two years’ time”, as they had been after the Mills Inquiry. </p>
<p>Although constitutional impediments prevented the “translating” of the University Grants Committee into Australia directly, the AVCC submission urged Murray to investigate the creation of an equivalent body. To clarify this for the British members of the committee, Paton explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the Universities are to develop as they should, we must of necessity depend more on the Commonwealth for our financial requirements, while the Commonwealth has the superior power over taxation. But we are equally anxious that anything the Commonwealth might contribute should not merely ease the financial responsibilities of the States towards the Universities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Murray Committee considered the vice-chancellors’ submission alongside those of student groups and industry representatives, and undertook the review at remarkable speed with the support of Menzies. The final report drew particular attention to the vice-chancellors’ request for a similar organisation to the British University Grants Committee. </p>
<p>Menzies adopted the recommendations within three days of the report’s release. The government pledged to establish a permanent body with the support of the state governments. The body would reside in the Prime Minister’s Department, separate from the Office of Education, so as to distinguish it from the provision of primary and secondary education. It would have its own secretariat and, although Murray recommended that it act informally, at least at the beginning, it would be established as a statutory authority in 1959. </p>
<p>This went much of the way to meeting the vice-chancellors’ request, although they might have preferred the body to have a more public role.</p>
<p>The Murray Report cited Commonwealth estimates that the number of students would almost double over the following decade, following “rapid” population growth and the increasing numbers remaining in secondary school to matriculation. This, Murray argued, would require existing universities to take more students, as well as a new university in Sydney and Melbourne. </p>
<p>Yet this grossly underestimated the demand for higher education that came only a few years later. The [newly established] <a href="https://archives.unimelb.edu.au/resources/keys-to-the-past/keys/key-67">Australian Universities Commission</a> immediately found itself grappling with a system growing more rapidly than anybody had imagined. New universities cast from the mould of the old would require unprecedented levels of public investment. In just five years a new committee of inquiry would be appointed to determine how this expansion could be supported.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>An extract from <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/history-australias-universities/">Australian Universities: A history of common cause</a> by Gwilym Croucher and James Waghorne, UNSW Press, November 2020, $39.99RRP.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Universities Australia supported research for the writing of this book.</span></em></p>A post-war funding crisis forced universities to take the initiative in making their case to the public. A new history explores how universities did it and the changes they brought about.Gwilym Croucher, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of MelbourneJames Waghorne, Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1039252018-10-02T13:55:28Z2018-10-02T13:55:28ZHow the humanities can equip students for the fourth industrial revolution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238442/original/file-20180928-48653-n3qtif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A humanities degree can open people's minds in the fourth industrial revolution.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The term “<a href="https://www.weforum.org/about/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-by-klaus-schwab">fourth industrial revolution</a>” is understood in various ways. Some people are excited about it. Others are cautious. Some assume it means that technology and robots will take over every human activity. And still others imagine that this “revolution” will lead only to joblessness and automation.</p>
<p>There are also those who are sceptical and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/there-s-no-such-thing-as-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-a7441966.html%20and%20insist%20that">insist</a> it’s no revolution at all. They argue that it’s just an improvement and fusion of various technologies – like artificial intelligence and 3D printing – and acceleration in productivity. </p>
<p>In all these instances, the interaction of technology with humans and humans with technology is underestimated. The emphasis on interaction is key to understanding the fourth industrial revolution. And this epoch will, like all times of change, require universities to push the boundaries of teaching and learning. </p>
<p>Universities will need to ensure that students are equipped with approaches to learning that involve agility, adaptability and curiosity. It will be a challenge for us all. </p>
<p>The fourth industrial revolution will also raise many questions for universities to consider. What needs to shift in how lecturers teach and how students learn and will be learning? What does the blurring of the lines between the physical, digital and technological mean for social relationships and for student learning? What do these shifts mean for different countries? Is learning in an environment with peers (virtually or in a class) better than learning online?</p>
<p>In seeking answers, societies must create the space to have conversations across social, academic, industry and community boundaries. The purpose of these conversations is to determine priority areas that need to be improved by the rapid technological changes we are currently experiencing as well as thinking about how we redefine the human condition. </p>
<p>Universities have a crucial role to play in these conversations. And a humanities education has a lot to offer when it comes to preparing students for the fourth industrial revolution.</p>
<h2>Harnessing the humanities</h2>
<p>A humanities education inculcates the importance of reflecting on the vast array of methodological and societal issues that arise from any practices. These include the technological and computational practices that underpin the fourth industrial revolution.</p>
<p>Critical thinking, debating and creative problem solving are taught in the humanities. This kind of critical orientation allows students to explore the complex human-to-human relations and the <a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2017/2017-09/human-vs-machine.html">human to robotic relations</a> that we are already encountering and that will become ever more common.</p>
<p>This isn’t to suggest that <em>only</em> the humanities are relevant. Cross-disciplinary communities of researchers and educators matter and will matter now more than ever. </p>
<p>This is particularly true in South Africa where the education system hasn’t provided for the breaking down of boundaries between the sciences, let alone between the disciplines in the humanities. Collectively we will need to do more when it comes to drawing on approaches from various disciplines, which will allow for quantitative reasoning, problem solving and systems thinking that are socially relevant. </p>
<p>Such partnerships are already happening in small pockets, and are yielding promising results.</p>
<h2>Collaborating and mutuality</h2>
<p>For instance, the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg collaborates with the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment to offer a <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/wsoa/digital-arts/undergraduate/game-design-/">joint undergraduate programme</a> that meshes engineering with arts to make a programme in game design and digital arts. </p>
<p>Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Engineering students work alongside each other in courses that are team-taught to design innovative high tech games. It’s not all fun: games, after all, are a means of challenging ourselves, controlling outcomes, competing, and figuring out successful strategies of doing things. </p>
<p>Students from this programme draw on a variety of skills like problem solving, inferential thinking and visualisation. They have produced games that are frequently downloaded from various app stores.</p>
<p>Similarly, the university’s faculties of science and humanities offer a postgraduate programme on <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/course-finder/postgraduate/humanities/e-science/">e-Science</a> or Data Science. The programme brings together science and humanities students and staff to work on complex, big data problems. They’re also taught to think of ways to visualise and communicate this information and to question the predictive powers of big data. </p>
<p>Students are exposed to various interdisciplinary approaches like statistical computing and modelling, data visualisation, text analysis, and geographical information systems. Master of Arts students take courses in data privacy and ethics alongside MSc students. This course is team-taught and students engage with complex problems from two or more science and humanities disciplines.</p>
<p>These and other examples of innovative teaching and learning help to disrupt the current techno talk that dominates conversations about the fourth industrial revolution. It’s essential that we bring our ideas to the fore and reshape the conversations in ways that resonate with who we are, where we are located and what this means for us and our futures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103925/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruksana Osman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More innovative teaching and learning is needed to disrupt the current techno talk about the fourth industrial revolution.Ruksana Osman, Professor and Dean of Humanities, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/774202017-05-18T14:11:49Z2017-05-18T14:11:49ZAcademics can’t change the world when they’re distrusted and discredited<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168732/original/file-20170510-28071-1hvts20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Academics find themselves in a world filled with people who aren't interested in facts.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There have been persistent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/sep/23/academics-leave-your-ivory-towers-and-pitch-your-work-to-the-media">calls</a> for academics and scientists to venture forth from academia’s ivory towers to engage with a wider audience on the critical issues facing society. It’s a reasonable argument. Academics stepping out of their traditional roles to disseminate scientific knowledge can offer great value to <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160530142606345">public policy debates</a>.</p>
<p>By occupying public forums and social media platforms as public intellectuals and thought leaders, academics can contribute significantly to making the world a better place.</p>
<p>But not all academics want to be public intellectuals and those who do, don’t always have the necessary <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Public-Professor-Research-Change-World/dp/1479861391">skills</a>. That can be dealt with through training, encouragement or incentives. But the real challenge for academics in the public sphere is that we’re living in a <a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/02/pursuing-veritas-in-a-post-truth-era/">post-truth world</a>. This describes a world where objective facts – scientific evidence – doesn’t influence public opinion. Instead, appeals to emotion and personal beliefs set the agenda.</p>
<p>Populist movements are on the rise. Their supporters distrust the establishment, elites, authority and official sources – including highly qualified academics. The post-truth world is a post-expert world.</p>
<p>If, as <a href="http://www.businesshardtalk.com/single-post/2016/07/07/Why-We-Don%E2%80%99t-Trust-Experts">research</a> suggests, people trust their Twitter and Facebook friends more than institutions such as the mainstream media, then experts may have no option but to immerse themselves in popular culture. They will have to engage on social media platforms, building new alliances and finding ways to build trust. </p>
<h2>Post-truth politics</h2>
<p>Post-truth politics and the mistrust of experts are not new. Some post-colonial African leaders have been <a href="http://democracyworks.org.za/african-leaders-are-masters-at-post-truth-politics/">described</a> as post-truth strategists, “manipulating the truth, distorting facts and fashioning alternative realities to cover-up their failures, to enrich themselves and stay in power”. </p>
<p>And politicians the world over have always been adept at manipulating popular opinion and discrediting scientific evidence that contradicts their ideological agendas or thwarts their political aspirations.</p>
<p>During his time in office former South African president Thabo Mbeki’s administration snubbed scientific evidence about the treatment of HIV/Aids. This had <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/researchers-estimate-lives-lost-delay-arv-drug-use-hivaids-south-africa/">devastating consequences</a>.</p>
<p>The country’s current president, Jacob Zuma, has also dabbled in post-truth. Zuma has referred to urban black intellectuals as “<a href="http://www.news24.com/Archives/City-Press/Zuma-scolds-clever-blacks-20150429">clever blacks</a>” on many occasions. When questioned in 2014 about corruption and the use of state expenditure for his private <a href="http://www.enca.com/elections-2014-south-africa/zuma-nkandla-not-issue-ordinary-voters">residence</a> he said that only “very clever and bright people” were concerned with the issue.</p>
<p>He has effectively driven a schism between rural black voters, where most of his support base lies, and the so–called “clever” urban black elite, many of whom are now calling for his <a href="http://www.news24.com/elections/news/the-clever-blacks-have-spoken-phosa-20160805">resignation</a>.</p>
<p>So how can academics adapt to a world in which populism trumps truth, perhaps more than ever before? </p>
<h2>Social media drives post-truth</h2>
<p>Some have <a href="https://theconversation.com/defending-science-how-the-art-of-rhetoric-can-help-68210">argued</a> that experts need to be schooled in the art of persuasive rhetoric. This will allow them to counteract junk science and anti-intellectualism. But there’s really no amount of training in persuasive communication that can prepare academics and scientists for engaging with dissenters on sites like Facebook or Twitter.</p>
<p>And it’s very <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21706498-dishonesty-politics-nothing-new-manner-which-some-politicians-now-lie-and">evident</a> that the internet, especially social media, is the main driver of the post–truth era.</p>
<p>There’s an overwhelming amount of contradictory information on the internet. Many people find it easier to retreat into their social media echo chambers that bolster their pre-existing beliefs and value systems than to engage with new ideas. </p>
<p>Professor Mary Beard, the Cambridge University classicist, is a case in point. She took part in a BBC1 panel programme in 2013 and cited a report that claimed immigration had brought some benefits to the UK. Her statements, based on evidence-based research, unleashed a torrent of sexual taunts and horrific verbal abuse. This illustrates how evidence can clash with individuals’ beliefs and create a severe “<a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-backfire-effect/">backfire effect</a>” that is further amplified in the post-truth digital space.</p>
<p>Dr Stella Nyanzi in Uganda illustrates the severe backlash that academics face when they take on powerful forces. Nyanzi has run afoul of Uganda’s President and First Lady with a series of radical and explicit posts on Facebook. These led to <a href="https://dailynewslagos.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/ugandan-human-rights-activist-stella-nyazi-jailed-for-calling-the-president-a-pair-of-buttocks/">her arrest</a> on charges of cyber harassment under Uganda’s Computer Misuse Act 2011. After four weeks in prison she was finally released on bail. Amnesty International has <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/05/uganda-stella-nyanzi-free-but-ludicrous-charges-must-be-dropped/">called</a> for all charges against her to be dropped. </p>
<p>The internet is a democratic space in that it can be accessed by almost anyone. The problem is that for every qualified academic and expert you find online, sharing information based on peer-reviewed, highly scrutinised research, there’s a snake oil salesman, pseudo-scientist, hate-mongerer and conspiracist who wants to <a href="http://theconversation.com/how-social-media-and-human-nature-have-spawned-hoaxes-and-hate-mongering-70929">spread false</a>, misleading, anti-science information to the masses. And, as Nyanzi’s case illustrates, powerful politicians might prefer those who don’t bring evidence to the table.</p>
<p>How, then, do academics and scientists fight distrust and denigration whilst bringing cutting edge, evidence based research to public policy debates? </p>
<h2>Adapt or die?</h2>
<p>Rapid advancements in digital technology and communications dictate that the “genie is out of the bottle”. So withdrawing when your research and evidence is attacked online may not really be an option. Just like Nyanzi, Beard chose to escalate her intellectual interaction on Twitter – as <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/weird-and-wonderful-world-academic-twitter">many academics</a> are doing. She pushed back at her detractors and has been described as a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/01/troll-slayer">“troll slayer”</a>.</p>
<p>It’s evident that even academics who’ve been wary of public engagement may not have the luxury of remaining invisible any more. They will have to rethink their traditional roles, functions and develop new ways of being. This may come more naturally as younger researchers – millennials – move into the academy. This generation tends to be more at ease with the cut and thrust of social media than the current crop of “baby boomers”.</p>
<p>There are however, clearly complex challenges – and even dangers – for the academic as a public intellectual in the post-truth information age.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77420/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lyn Snodgrass does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Populist movements are on the rise. Their supporters distrust the establishment, elites, authority and official sources. The post-truth world is a post-expert world.Lyn Snodgrass, Associate Professor and Head of Department of Political and Conflict Studies, Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/638402016-08-16T19:39:52Z2016-08-16T19:39:52ZDecolonisation debate is a chance to rethink the role of universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133929/original/image-20160812-16360-1dbac4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The decolonisation of South Africa's university curriculum seems to have fallen off the agenda, overtaken by the push for free higher education.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When South African students launched the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/16/the-real-meaning-of-rhodes-must-fall">Rhodes Must Fall</a>” campaign in 2015, one of their major demands was that the university curriculum be decolonised. This seems to have fallen off the agenda, overtaken by the push for free higher education. </p>
<p>It would be a pity if <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/summit/Docs/2015Docs/Annex%203_DHET_Progress%20with%20transformation%20_What%20do%20the%20data%20say.pdf">funding challenges</a> – important as they are – preclude a focus on challenges related to higher education’s core functions: teaching, learning and research.</p>
<p>The decolonisation debate raises critical issues about the relationship between power, knowledge and learning. It provides an opportunity to rethink the role of universities in social and economic development and in fashioning a common nation.</p>
<p>There are two underlying issues that should be unpacked to take the decolonisation debate forward.</p>
<h2>Institutional cultures in focus</h2>
<p>The first issue is to recognise that decolonisation is about more than the curriculum. It involves more than changing reading lists through adding texts by African writers and those from the global south. It is about how knowledge – and the assumptions and values that underpin its conception, construction and transmission – is reflected in the university as a social institution. </p>
<p>It is in essence about institutional culture: the ways of seeing and doing that permeate a university and are reflected in learning and teaching. In this sense it is both about the formal curriculum and the informal or “hidden” curriculum. This includes the symbols and naming conventions that privilege and affirm certain knowledge and cultural traditions while excluding others.</p>
<p>Decolonisation is first and foremost about inclusion, recognition and affirmation. It seeks to affirm African knowledge and cultural traditions in universities, which remain dominated by western traditions. As a student commented during <a href="http://sotlforsocialjustice.blogspot.co.za/2016/03/first-seminar-at-uj-decolonizing">a panel about decolonisation</a> at the University of Johannesburg (UJ):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Please let us see ourselves within the degrees that are taught – otherwise, UJ, how is it an African university?</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n2Dh-K4S-Ak?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Brenda Liebowitz of the University of Johannesburg unpacks aspects of the decolonisation debate.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All of this means reflecting on and unpacking an institution’s culture. Universities must guard against solutions that may, in the very process of inclusion, lead to exclusion. </p>
<p>To illustrate this from beyond the world of higher education: my children attended a primary school in Johannesburg that celebrated all religious festivals – Eid, Diwali, Rosh Hashanah. At a special school assembly each year, children from different religions explained what their festivals symbolised.</p>
<p>But Christmas was celebrated through a nativity play in which all of the students participated and which all the parents attended. So the process of inclusion privileged one tradition, Christianity. Non-Christian traditions, although unintentionally, were marginalised as “other”.</p>
<h2>Narrow lens</h2>
<p>The second issue is to recognise that decolonisation is too narrow and limiting a lens through which to engage the debate on curriculum change. </p>
<p>Decolonisation refers to the historical process whereby countries that were ruled by foreign powers obtain their independence. It is about replacing the foreign with a national power, both of which are assumed to be homogeneous. It isn’t about changing or transforming a colonised society’s institutional structures.</p>
<p>This is also a key conceptual weakness in curriculum decolonisation. It assumes that different knowledge systems are homogeneous. This ignores the social underpinnings of knowledge – the fact that all traditions feature dominant and marginal knowledges. These are based on power relations and worldviews linked to race, class, gender and other societal divisions.</p>
<p>This leads to two dangers: racial essentialism - replacing white with black or Freud with Fanon; and social conservatism, which pits modernity against tradition. It calls for African solutions to African problems. But it does this in a context where tradition is viewed as static rather than dynamic – evolving with changing social and economic contexts.</p>
<p>As South African President Jacob Zuma <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2016/04/08/Before-turning-to-the-court-we-should-solve-things-Africa-way">has argued</a> in response to his various legal challenges, the law (West/modern) is cold; the body (Africa/tradition) is warm.</p>
<p>These dangers can be avoided if knowledge is understood in terms of epistemological diversity. This recognises the universality of knowledge. It is premised on an open dialogue and the interdependence of – and porous boundaries between – different knowledge traditions. It enables the reclaiming and affirming of African knowledge traditions. </p>
<p>It also acknowledges that the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment">Enlightenment</a>, the cornerstone of modern (western) social and economic thought, was itself influenced by ideas that emanated from other traditions.</p>
<h2>On the edge of an abyss</h2>
<p>The issues and problems raised by students are not new. The need to transform institutional cultures has been a constant refrain in higher education policy debates since 1994. It was brought to the fore by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/27/bloemfontein-students-black-staff-campus">Reitz affair</a> at the University of the Free State in early 2008. There, a group of white students at a university residence humiliated black workers.</p>
<p>This caused a national outcry. It led to the establishment of a <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Support/Report%20of%20the%20Ministerial%20Committee%20on%20racism%20at%20higher%20education%20institutions.pdf">ministerial committee</a> to consider issues of discrimination, transformation and social cohesion in higher education.</p>
<p>The committee’s report offered a comprehensive set of recommendations to both the ministry of higher education and training and individual universities. The failure to implement these systematically has led to the current crisis of legitimacy confronting the higher education system.</p>
<p>The committee’s views on curriculum change were prescient. It placed epistemological transformation at the centre of the higher education transformation agenda. It called for a macro-review to <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Support/Report%20of%20the%20Ministerial%20Committee%20on%20racism%20at%20higher%20education%20institutions.pdf">assess the appropriateness</a> of the “social, ethical, political and technical skills and competencies embedded” in the curriculum. </p>
<p>It’s important, the committee argued, to consider whether the current curriculum prepares young people for their role in post-apartheid South Africa, in Africa and the world. Does it enable them to grapple with what it means to be human in South Africa in the 21st century?</p>
<p>But the voices that speak of the pain of marginalisation and plead for affirmation that leap out of the pages of the committee’s report were not listened to. Ignoring students’ voices in 2016 will lead higher education to the abyss.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Author’s note: This article is based on speaking notes as a respondent to professor Brenda Leibowitz’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Dh-K4S-Ak">inaugural lecture</a>, Power, knowledge and learning: A humble contribution to the decolonisation debate. This was delivered at the University of Johannesburg on April 18, 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63840/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ahmed Essop does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The decolonisation debate in South Africa’s universities raises critical issues about the relationship between power, knowledge and learning.Ahmed Essop, Research Associate in Higher Education Policy and Planning, Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/596042016-05-23T13:59:33Z2016-05-23T13:59:33ZDecolonising universities isn’t an easy process – but it has to happen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123175/original/image-20160519-30711-1n6lbg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students want colonial symbols, such as this statue of Cecil John Rhodes, gone from their universities. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South African universities have become protest sites. Beginning in 2015 and continuing this year, students have organised against colonial symbols, fee structures, worker exploitation and sexual violence. The anger displayed during these protests speaks directly to students’ frustration with the slow and skewed transformation of society at large – and in the academy particularly.</p>
<p>Universities have been under enormous pressure to increase access for black students, who were historically kept out of higher education or pushed into institutions reserved for “non-whites”. There’s a drive to promote equity and to become “internationalised”.</p>
<p>At the same time they’re dealing with <a href="http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/0e47a0804a3cd210af40efa53d9712f0/SA-universities-under-extreme-financial-pressure-20151017">massive</a> financial constraints. Most universities have been able to <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/DHET%20Statistics%20Publication/Statistics%20on%20Post-School%20Education%20and%20Training%20in%20South%20Africa%202013.pdf">increase access</a> for black students. But they have not spent adequate resources and time reviewing the cultures and curricula of these institutions. Students’ demands, then, coalesce under the rallying call for decolonisation - of symbols, aesthetics, language, culture, knowledge, representation and more.</p>
<p>What is meant by decolonisation in South Africa’s current context? What should the process entail, especially in relation to the curriculum, teaching and learning? Universities are grappling with these and other questions on a number of platforms. Our own institution, the University of Johannesburg, has hosted three well-attended panel discussions about decolonisation. These have thrown up some interesting, challenging ideas that hold important lessons for all universities.</p>
<h2>A long history</h2>
<p>Calls for the decolonisation of countries, institutions, the mind and of knowledge are not new. They emerged from global anti-colonial liberation movements. They found expression in the <a href="http://www.padeap.net/the-history-of-pan-africanism">Pan Africanist</a>, <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/gah/negritude-movement">Negritude</a>, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/black-consciousness-movement">Black Consciousness</a> and <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=FvgJhJdQOaEC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=african+renaissance+movement&source=bl&ots=VMYmyJFuON&sig=pWyfSlNcIIphjoOxqcISjqA921k&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjq1tGg3uXMAhXpB8AKHTqVCpkQ6AEIUTAK#v=onepage&q=african%20renaissance%20movement&f=false">African Renaissance</a> movements. </p>
<p>Universities, too, have long been at the centre of decolonisation debates. Discussions have been held for decades about the space for African indigenous knowledge systems and the role of African philosophy. Several theories and areas of study have sprung up from these debates: critical race theory, post-colonial studies, <a href="http://www.sas.upenn.edu/%7Edludden/ReadingSS_INTRO.pdf">Subaltern studies</a> and feminist theories from the global South. There were attempts particularly at the universities of Dar es Salaam and Makerere in the 1970s to provide alternative epistemologies. The University of Cape Town also engaged with the issue of decolonisation during the 1990s when <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2015/04/07/anger-over-rhodes-vindicates-mamdani">Professor Mahmood Mamdani</a> was appointed as chair of African studies. </p>
<p>Scholars within these thought systems have critiqued the dominance of western epistemology, methodology and scholarship. They’ve railed against the silencing of the ‘Other’ – particularly African scholars. They’ve objected to what theorist <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/sociology/Southern-Theory-Raewyn-Connell-9781741753578">Raewyn Connell</a> calls the rendering of Africa as “a place to learn about and not from”. </p>
<p>Given this long history of debate, thought and agitation for change, why are universities lagging so far behind? Part of the answer may lie in a comment Puerto Rican Professor of Ethnic Studies Nelson Maldonado-Torres made during one of our institution’s panel discussions. He noted that the very act of decolonisation generates anxiety. It unsettles one’s sense of well being and belonging. It calls identities and the project of enlightenment into question.</p>
<h2>It’s not about replacement</h2>
<p>The South African academy is experiencing this unease right now. It manifests in several ways. Many students and staff simply refuse to engage with the debates at all. Some staff ridicule students’ demands for a multiplicity of knowledge systems by denying that these systems exist or debunking them as inferior to western theories and systems. Many academics have <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-04-22-letter-to-the-editor-appeasing-the-uct-taliban/#.VxuzeXeEbqC">responded</a> to calls for an African-centered curriculum by saying this would render South Africa’s universities <a href="http://www.biznews.com/thought-leaders/2016/05/04/rw-johnson-ucts-critical-choice-go-private-or-become-another-turfloop/">parochial</a>. </p>
<p>This last point may, in certain instances, be the case. But then one can make the same claim about so much of the work that emanates from the West. What’s important is to expose students to different forms of inquiry and to enable them to think critically about all forms of knowledge production. </p>
<p>Decolonisation of knowledge demands that universities revisit their curricula and include – not in uncritical ways – epistemologies, texts and scholarly work that have been previously excluded or marginalised. During this process of inclusion, academics must also explain why certain forms of knowledge and values have been privileged; the academy’s assumptions about what constitutes knowledge, and the impact that this has had.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.uwc.ac.za/Biography/Pages/Desiree-Lewis-.aspx">Professor Desiree Lewis</a> of the University of the Western Cape, who spoke on one of the panels, pointed out that it’s not enough to simply replace one body of content with another and keep the power relations and teaching and learning processes as they have been. </p>
<p>Knowledge is hybrid and interactive. It is imperative that universities examine the relations between knowledge and power. The reluctance to do so, we would argue, stems primarily from a fear of the unknown. Lecturers are worried about needing to reskill to be able to deliver a new curriculum. Academics have not reached this place voluntarily or through consensus: students are pressuring us to reflect on how we teach, and this is forcing us to rethink and revise what the academic project should be. </p>
<p>Students must play a central role in the decolonisation of knowledge. They need to participate in the attempts to revisit how and what is taught. </p>
<p>The journey ahead for the academy will be a long and unnerving one, but it has to be undertaken. The consequence of not doing so is to continue to be complicit in the reproduction of social and cognitive injustices; to condemn students to be perpetual consumers of knowledge. In fact, students have pointed out that if knowledge isn’t decolonised academics, too, will remain perpetual consumers rather than creators and authors. </p>
<h2>Asking new questions</h2>
<p>Universities need to be asking a new set of questions about the nature of society, the kind of students they want to produce and the best paths for achieving this. </p>
<p>When students question the 1994 transformation and reconciliation project, they in effect are asking academics to revisit the paths to political, social and economic development in this country so that they address the needs of a future generation. Part of the purpose of a university is to think through these broader societal challenges and to provide students with access to alternative ways of envisioning the world and interpreting their experiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Calls for the decolonisation of countries, institutions, the mind and of knowledge are not new. In South Africa, these changes are crucial and long overdue. But they must be carefully thought through.Cheryl Hendricks, Professor of Political Science, University of JohannesburgBrenda Leibowitz, Professor of Teaching and Learning, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/580842016-04-21T20:41:21Z2016-04-21T20:41:21ZCompetition as a fetish: why universities need to escape the trap<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119637/original/image-20160421-27001-1l2x18h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What are universities losing in their obsession with competition?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is a foundation essay. These are longer than usual and take a wider look at a key issue affecting society.</em></p>
<p>Competition has colonised our world. Everywhere we go and every step we take, we hear the siren call of competition. Higher education, too, is trapped in a competition fetish. </p>
<p>A fetish is <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/20166719?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">the belief</a> in something having the power to make our desires come true and protect us from harm.</p>
<p>Higher education can be seen to be trapped in a kind of magical thinking that makes a fetish out of competition. There is a modern-day notion that competition will <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/474266/BIS-15-623-fulfilling-our-potential-teaching-excellence-social-mobility-and-student-choice-accessible.pdf">solve all problems</a>. Its proponents believe it will lead to equity, enhance quality and protect universities against risk. Most importantly, competition is perceived as a natural force that is independent from human agency.</p>
<p>Of course, not all competition is negative. But it is important to understand what has caused the issues bedevilling modern higher education and the extent to which competition can solve these. In its current form, competition unthinkingly applied damages higher education by compromising research values, encouraging academics to focus inwards rather than engaging in work that will boost global well-being and turning students into consumers.</p>
<h2>Competition comes in many forms</h2>
<p>There are many varieties of competition in higher education. I would like to outline four:</p>
<p><strong>1. Intellectual capital</strong></p>
<p>Scholars have long engaged in various forms of competition, including the symbolic destruction of rival scholarship. Today the competition for intellectual capital or research prestige remains strong, but it is changing and other forms of competition are beginning to jostle for dominance.</p>
<p><strong>2. The contribution of higher education to geopolitical rivalry</strong></p>
<p>We live in an era of “<a href="http://eatonak.org/IPE501/downloads/files/New%20Imperialism.pdf">the new imperialism</a>”, asserts British anthropologist David Harvey. Dominant states and their allies search for new areas for profit. National borders are penetrated by political and economic measures for access to raw materials and strategic geopolitical positions. </p>
<p>States also exist in <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/globalized-corporations-and-the-erosion-of-state-power/5661?print=1">complex relations</a> with transnational corporations. Global corporations gain more and more power to change policy and regulation in their own interests.</p>
<p>The rivalry between nations is more than economic. It is also a race for influence through which powerful groups assert their own preferred political, economic and cultural models. This happens through the <a href="https://www.udel.edu/anthro/ackerman/hidden%20curr.pdf">hidden curriculum</a>, which refers to the unwritten and unofficial values and perspectives that students learn in higher education through course content and teaching methods. It also occurs more explicitly. Richard Riley, a former secretary of education in the US, called on higher education to promote the country’s <a href="http://search.proquest.com/docview/218535013?pq-origsite=gscholar">diplomatic interests</a> with the rest of the world. China has deployed what some call “soft power” to set up <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-confucius-institutes-arent-perfect-but-have-much-to-offer-africa-51596">Confucius Institutes</a> in about 88 countries.</p>
<p>Higher education stands at the centre of such struggles. It has become a crucial engine to enhance a country’s position in the global economy. Higher education has also been transformed into <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01425690301902">a commodity</a>.</p>
<p><strong>3. “Government-sponsored competition”</strong> </p>
<p>These are generally termed “excellence policies” and include Germany’s Excellence Initiative and the UK Research Excellence Framework. The aim is to identify and divert funding to “world-class” universities so they’re well-positioned for global competition. State-sponsored competitions are presented as being in the national interest. But such battles are fought between the most elite universities in the most powerful countries. In highly stratified systems few benefits trickle down: the whole system is sacrificed to the national competition fetish.</p>
<p><strong>4. Status competition</strong></p>
<p>Universities shape their speculative value through global rankings – even though such rankings don’t measure holistic performance. Even under-resourced institutions push to feature on these ranking lists so they’ll be seen as competitive.</p>
<p>Academics and students, too, play their part. Competition is so powerful in higher education because it borrows legitimacy from elite intellectual capital. Academics are seduced and coerced to co-produce various types of competition. For example, academics undertake peer assessment in a process through which assessors accommodate themselves to externally generated pressures. </p>
<p>Research I’ve conducted with fellow academics <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233310908_The_Consumerist_Turn_in_Higher_Education_Policy_Aspirations_and_Outcomes">shows</a> that market competition, tuition fees and the policy of introducing choice to users of public services have also positioned students as consumers who are responsible for driving competition in higher education. There have been some positive outcomes from this, but our research also reveals how consumerism promotes passive learning, threatens academic standards and entrenches even more inequality in the system.</p>
<h2>The consequences of competition</h2>
<p>Competition can generate <a href="http://www.commonhouse.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/4873-american_nightmare_neoliberalism_neoconservatism.pdf">extreme inequalities</a> of wealth, precarious communities and an unholy intimacy between capital and governments. This is also true in higher education.</p>
<p>Competition reproduces old hierarchies and channels new forms of inequality both within and across national higher education systems. High status, well-resourced universities in poorer countries that serve an elite are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289725792_Rethinking_development_Higher_education_and_the_new_imperialism">intimately connected</a> to the global power nodes of higher education. </p>
<p>Competition threatens academic work by setting up research excellence frameworks that result in unintended consequences. There is evidence for this: Germany’s “Excellence Initiative” has <a href="http://www.uni-kassel.de/wz1/mahe/course/module4_2/05_kehm08.pdf">resulted in</a> more stratification, a downgrading of teaching and an additional administrative burden. Such frameworks also militate against <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01425692.2015.1100530#abstract">“blue skies” research</a> – the sort that is driven by curiosity rather than a production agenda. These frameworks encourage dubious research tactics for maximising citations. They over-emphasise conformity to politically expedient external expectations.</p>
<p>The competition fetish also threatens academics’ capacity to work towards global well-being. Much research and policy focuses on how universities contribute to the economic and social development of their own countries. But many of the major issues facing humankind – the destruction of the environment, rising inequality and violence across borders – can only be solved by countries and universities working together. In this sense, the question of how higher education contributes to global well-being becomes very important.</p>
<h2>Moving beyond the competition fetish</h2>
<p>As I have said, not all competition is negative. Traditional academic competition in research has led to huge intellectual advances. </p>
<p>What I am arguing against is the idea of competition as a fetish – the idea that different types of competition can be unthinkingly applied to answer all of higher education’s unsolved problems. Or the idea that competition has become so powerful that other ways of organising such as planning and co-ordination are rendered obsolete.</p>
<p>By its very nature, the competition fetish produces the conviction that “there is no alternative”. Academics must explicitly counter this view. The stakes are too high. Higher education is too important to be left to a fetish. Higher education needs to find ways to recollectivise; to sustain the small and big acts of hope and to work together as policymakers, researchers, teachers, managers and students to find new visions and alternative ways to organise.</p>
<p><em>This an edited version of the <a href="http://worldviewsconference.com/">2016 Worldviews Annual Lecture</a> on Media and Higher Education delivered on April 13 2016 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. It first appeared in written form on <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160413131355443">University World News</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rajani Naidoo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Competition can be a force for positive change. But in its current form, it’s setting universities back rather than moving them forward.Rajani Naidoo, Professor and Director, International Centre for Higher Education Management, School of Management, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/567022016-03-23T14:46:56Z2016-03-23T14:46:56ZHow to turn professionals into people who serve the public good<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116211/original/image-20160323-28212-1bclj54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are eight skills that future professionals should develop to work for the good of society.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Development, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Development-as-Freedom-Amartya-Sen/dp/0385720270">argues</a> Indian economist Amartya Sen, is the expansion of people’s freedoms to lead lives that matter to them. Doing so might include being treated with dignity or ensuring that their children get a decent education. </p>
<p>How can this sort of development happen in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-south-africa-the-most-unequal-society-in-the-world-48334">highly unequal</a> society like South Africa? Many South Africans live in extreme poverty. Only <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/DHET%20Statistics%20Publication/Statistics%20on%20Post-School%20Education%20and%20Training%20in%20South%20Africa%202013.pdf">a minority</a> have access to higher education - a space that, at its best, produces people who can change society. Universities obviously can’t do everything. They cannot compensate directly for poverty. But they can ensure that they’re educating professionals who are committed to reducing inequality. These people can go on to contribute to a more just society. </p>
<p>For two years, my colleague Monica McLean and I conducted <a href="https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415604710">research</a> to find out what kind of professional education in universities could equip graduates with the knowledge, skills and values to work for the public good. This means working to make the broader society more just and equitable so that people can “develop” according to Sen’s definition. We wanted to know how university graduates can enable dignified lives for others as envisioned by Sen and US philosopher <a href="http://www.reflexe.cz/File/Reflexe22/nussbaum.pdf">Martha Nussbaum</a>. </p>
<p>What emerged was a list of eight “public-good professional capabilities” that should be considered when educating social workers, public health practitioners, lawyers, engineers and other professionals who can go on to work for a more equitable, just society. Not all of these future professionals start out with ideas of public good foremost in their minds. But when characteristics on this list are developed through their university education, they may go on to work for the public good. For example, engineers might advance sustainable and affordable energy or initiate simple infrastructure projects in rural communities.</p>
<h2>The list</h2>
<p>Our research needed to define a set of capabilities agreed on by professional education groups. These were collected through in-depth interviews with students, lecturers, academic leaders, university alumni, non-governmental organisations and professional bodies. We examined what professionals do and how their university education has equipped them.</p>
<p>We used this data to draft a list of eight broad qualities - what Sen would call capabilities and functionings - that universities should consider when trying to produce public-good professionals.</p>
<p><strong>1. Informed vision:</strong> This involves being able to imagine alternative futures. Graduates must understand how their profession is shaped by historical and current socio-economic, political contexts both nationally and globally. They also need to understand how structures shape individual lives.</p>
<p><strong>2. Affiliation:</strong> Professional graduates must understand their obligations to others. Care and respect for diverse people is crucial, as is understanding the lives of poor and vulnerable people. Graduates with this capability can develop relationships and rapport across social groups and status hierarchies. They respect different cultures, and are courteous and patient.</p>
<p><strong>3. Resilience:</strong> Quite simply, this involves perseverance in difficult circumstances.</p>
<p><strong>4. Social and collective struggle:</strong> Professional graduates must be dedicated to empowering communities and promoting human rights. They should be able to help formulate and implement policy, as well as identifying spaces for change. They must be equipped to lead and manage social change to reduce injustice. Such graduates are comfortable working in professional and inter-professional teams - and listening to all voices in any conversation. They must have the skills to build and sustain strategic relationships and networks with organisations and governments.</p>
<p><strong>5. Emotional reflexivity:</strong> This involves showing empathy and compassion, as well as being able to integrate rationality and emotions. Graduates should be emotionally reflexive about power and privilege.</p>
<p><strong>6. Integrity and courage:</strong> Professional graduates must act ethically. They should be responsible and accountable – not just to the communities they serve, but also to their colleagues. They are honest and aim to provide high-quality service.</p>
<p><strong>7. Assurance and confidence:</strong> Graduates who embody this capability have the confident to act for change. They can express and assert their own professional priorities and are confident that their work is worthwhile.</p>
<p><strong>8. Knowledge and skills:</strong> Finally, professional graduates must have a firm, critical grounding in disciplinary, academic knowledge. But they must also value indigenous and community knowledge. These graduates are enquiring, critical, evaluative, imaginative, creative and flexible. They are open-minded problem solvers who integrate theory and practice.</p>
<h2>Bringing the list to life</h2>
<p>There are a number of contextual constraints on public-good professionalism. The legacy of apartheid still poses tremendous material constraints, for instance. Interviewees talked about under-resourced and often poorly managed public services, a brain drain of skilled professionals either into private practice or jobs abroad, a dearth of black professionals in some fields and race-based discrimination.</p>
<p>Despite the constraints, it’s our belief that there are always grounds for hope in an imperfect world. This research revealed strong, clear visions of public-good professionalism among the interviewees. South Africans can’t wait around for perfect social structures, perfectly just institutions or even perfect professionals. The sort of approach our research proposes offers a contextualised, collaborative and feasible vehicle for designing and evaluating curriculum and teaching methods. It animates ways to walk new professional pathways in non-ideal circumstances - all while holding to the ideal of what it means to be a public-good professional.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56702/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Walker currently receives funding from the National Research Foundation. The research reported in this article was funded by the ERC and DfID in the UK. </span></em></p>University graduates have the power to enable dignified lives for others in a society. What skills and qualities do they need for this to happen?Melanie Walker, Professor of Higher Education and Human Development, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/533392016-02-10T04:37:47Z2016-02-10T04:37:47ZTechnology will make lecturers redundant – but only if they let it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110586/original/image-20160208-2637-8blvwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It may look like science fiction, but this is the new reality of technology-driven learning. Lecturers must keep up.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yuriko Nakao/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A teacher walks into a classroom and begins a lesson. As she speaks, the <a href="http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2014/05/27/microsoft-demos-breakthrough-in-real-time-translated-conversations/">audio is translated in real time</a> into a variety of languages that students have pre-selected, so each can hear the lecturer’s voice in their own language. It can even be <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/29/tech/innovation/bone-conduction-get-used/">delivered directly into their auditory canal</a> so that it does not disturb other students. The lecturer’s voice is also transcribed in real-time, appearing in a display that <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/21/augmented-reality-glasses-for-the-masses-for-2750.html">presents digital content</a> over the students’ visual field.</p>
<p>As the lesson progresses, students identify concepts they feel need further clarification. They submit highly individual queries to search engines that use <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-26/google-turning-its-lucrative-web-search-over-to-ai-machines">artificial intelligence algorithms</a> to filter and synthesise results from a variety of sources. This information is presented in their augmented reality system, along with the sources used, and additional detail in the form of images and animations.</p>
<p>All of the additional information gathered by students is collated into a single set of notes for the lesson, along with video and audio recordings of the interactions. It’s then published to the <a href="http://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure">class server</a>.</p>
<p>This isn’t science fiction. All of the technology described here currently exists. Over time it will become more automated, economical and accurate.</p>
<p>What does a scenario like the one described here mean for lecturers who think that “teaching” means selecting and packaging information for students? There are many <a href="http://www.lonestar.edu/multimedia/SevenPrinciples.pdf">excellent theoretical reasons</a> for why simply covering the content or “getting through the syllabus” has no place in higher education. But for the purposes of this article I’ll focus on the powerful <em>practical</em> reasons that lecturers who merely cover the content are on a guaranteed path to redundancy.</p>
<h2>The future isn’t coming - it’s here</h2>
<p>The technology described above may sound outlandish and seem totally out of most students’ reach. But consider the humble - and ubiquitous - smartphone. A decade ago, the iPhone didn’t exist. Five years ago most students in my classes at a South African university didn’t have smartphones. Today, <a href="http://memeburn.com/2014/08/16-graphs-that-shed-new-light-on-the-south-african-smartphone-space/">most do</a>. Research shows that this growth is <a href="http://qz.com/451844/africas-smartphone-market-is-on-the-rise-as-affordable-handsets-spur-growth/">mirrored across Africa</a>. The first cellphones were prohibitively expensive, but now smartphones and tablets are handed out to people opening a bank account. The technology on these phones is also becoming <a href="http://www.mooreslaw.org/">increasingly powerful</a>, and will continue to advance so that what is cutting edge today will be mainstream in about five years’ time.</p>
<p>This educational technology can change the way that university students learn. But ultimately, machines can’t replace teachers. Unless, that is, teachers are just selecting and packaging content with a view to “getting through the syllabus”. As demonstrated above, computers and algorithms are becoming increasingly adept at the filtering and synthesis of specialised information. Teachers who focus on the real role of universities - teaching students how to think <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED338557">deeply and critically</a> - and who have an open mind, needn’t fear this technology.</p>
<h2>Crucial role of universities</h2>
<p>In a society where <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-big-data-can-transform-society-for-the-better/">machines</a> are taking over more and more of our decision-making, we must acknowledge that the value of a university is not the academics who see their work as controlling access to specialised knowledge. </p>
<p>Rather, it’s that higher education institutions constitute spaces that encourage in-depth investigation into the nature of the world. The best university teachers don’t just focus on content because doing so would reduce their roles to information filters who simply make decisions about what content is important to cover. </p>
<p>Digital tools are quickly getting to the point where algorithms will outperform experts, not only in filtering content but also in synthesising it. Teachers should embrace technology by encouraging their students to build knowledge through digital networks both within and outside the academy. That way they will never become redundant. And they’ll ensure that their graduates are critical thinkers, not just technological gurus.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Rowe receives funding from the National Research Foundation.</span></em></p>Educational technology is not science fiction. Lecturers need to ensure that they adapt to a future which has already arrived.Michael Rowe, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/539732016-02-04T04:15:49Z2016-02-04T04:15:49ZInsularity leaves Indonesia trailing behind in the world of social research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110091/original/image-20160203-28545-15qe838.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5472%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indonesian academic institutions produce few evidence-based analyses on social issues. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country and southeast Asia’s biggest economy – yet when it comes to research and peer-reviewed publications on pressing topics such as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/dec/16/carbon-neutral-technology-provides-power-to-rural-communities-in-east-africa">finding innovative ways to empower impoverished communities</a>, we <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/books/9789814380416?auth=0">trail behind countries</a> with lower GDP including Bangladesh, Kenya and Nigeria. </p>
<p>Having evidence-based analyses of history, politics, social systems, and human behaviour is essential to prevent bad policy-making. It’s also important for informing ourselves and the world about Indonesia. Currently, articles about Indonesia in international journals are mostly written by scholars from outside Indonesia, suggesting local institutions are not effective in producing social scholarship. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, nearly 80% of social research by Indonesian state universities is commissioned applied research that does not focus on fundamental understanding of social changes. </p>
<p>What caused this and what should be done to address the problem? </p>
<p>I led a <a href="http://www.gdn.int/html/page2.php?MID=3&SID=24&SSID=24&SCID=42&SSCID=133">joint research project</a> by University of Indonesia’s Communication Research Centre, the Centre for Innovation Policy and Governance and Murdoch University’s Asia Research Centre to answer these questions. </p>
<p>Our findings show that in the field of social studies, marketisation of state universities, aimed to give them freedom to seek and manage funds, has failed to increase research activities. </p>
<p>Additionally, state universities’ bureaucracy does not support research excellence. Their closed recruitment system has caused insularity which has stymied efforts to push for more collaborative research in Indonesia.</p>
<h2>Marketisation of state universities</h2>
<p>Since 2000, the Indonesian government has allowed state universities to seek and manage external funding to support academic activities, including research. </p>
<p>This, as well as providing scholarships and increasing research budgets for higher education institutions, are part of an attempt to encourage scientific research and publication, neglected during the authoritarian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suharto">Suharto</a> regime. </p>
<p>Under Suharto, <a href="https://books.google.co.id/books/about/Social_Science_and_Power_in_Indonesia.html?id=WM3_ulRJFlkC&redir_esc=y">universities’ role were limited</a> to serve the government. Researchers between 1970s and 1990s acted more as technocrats than scientists, producing government commissioned studies for policy recommendations. Basic research and publication in scientific journals were not prioritised. </p>
<p>The new policies, however, have failed to bring about cross-pollination in sciences and research. Instead, universities use their autonomy to increase tuition fees and student intake, as well as engaging in business research and training.</p>
<p>Indonesian academics from state universities have been <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03050068.2015.1112566">reduced to service workers</a> under an increasingly liberal system. They are forced to take on many teaching hours due to the large number of students. State universities comprise only 74 of the 539 higher education institutions registered with the state (14%), yet they account for 40% of the total university students enrolled.</p>
<p>Academics are also encouraged to carry out research projects to generate income for the institutions they work for. Universities, however, are not required to publicly disclose how they manage the funds from these commercial projects. </p>
<h2>Bureaucracy and insularity</h2>
<p>While state universities are now open to seek external funding, their recruitment and administrative system are still part of the government bureaucracy. This system gives little incentive for scientific achievements. </p>
<p>Most Indonesian academics are civil servants. Their promotion depends on performance appraisals, subjected to all government employees, that do not co-relate with research productivity. They are also subjected to a complex academic credit system that measures promotion based on administrative requirements, not academic merit. </p>
<p>Most active Indonesian researchers in state universities are over 50 years old, who were recruited through a closed system. State universities mostly hire their own graduates. Those graduates usually continue their higher education within the same university. </p>
<p>Hence, faculty members are often more concerned in pursuing their institution’s research interests, which are more income-generating applied research, rather than engaging with international peers for academic excellence. </p>
<p>As a result, out of 354 of lecturers surveyed in our research, only 28 are published in peer-reviewed journals indexed by the bibliometric database <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopus">Scopus</a>. </p>
<p>Out of the 28, 90% are based in the more developed island of Java. Only 8% have taken sabbatical leave, and 55% do not know how their findings have been quoted by other scholars. </p>
<p>Most hold multiple structural managerial positions on campus, which they perceive as helping to expand their research network.</p>
<p>Our findings show that Indonesian scholars lack academic mobility between institutions and countries. This shapes a culture of insularity that worsens the already low presence of Indonesians in the global academia. </p>
<h2>Building alliances and peer culture</h2>
<p>Indonesia needs a network of scholars, in different stages of their careers, from various universities and research organisations in Indonesia and beyond, to deepen intellectual engagement among academics. </p>
<p>Alliances must be built in order to reform the poor social research culture in Indonesia. The Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-indonesia-marks-70-years-of-independence-young-scientists-look-ahead-to-the-100th-45659">the Indonesian Young Academy of Sciences</a> (ALMI), have initiated this. </p>
<p>These organisations aim to equip Indonesian social scholars with the necessary skills and networks to gain academic mobility required to support institutional research development. </p>
<p>However, for real change to happen, policies and the disbursement of funding must support universities in cultivating a culture of peer-review in order to reform basic social research in Indonesia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53973/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Inaya Rakhmani received funding from the Global Development Network for the research mentioned in this article.</span></em></p>Indonesia should cultivate a culture of peer-review to support academics produce basic social research, essential in creating good policies in the world’s fourth most populous country.Inaya Rakhmani, Lecturer in Communication Science and Head of Communications Research Centre, Universitas IndonesiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/535682016-02-01T04:32:02Z2016-02-01T04:32:02ZThe untold story of how Africa’s flagship universities have advanced<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108973/original/image-20160122-425-bor0bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Africa's flagship universities have a great deal to offer as the continent continues to grow and develop.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa has <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.TER.ENRR">the lowest</a> university enrolment rates in the world. In the past two decades, though, virtually all the continent’s higher education systems have recorded <a href="http://www.codesria.org/IMG/pdf/0-jhea_vol_11_1_2_13_prelim.pdf?3971/82897c51401c0cca7a99942e57038f540cfb632d">massive growth</a>. </p>
<p>The spike in enrolments started in the late 1990s. It was driven partly by the liberalisation of the global economy. People also started becoming more aware of the <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=nUZ0SLG1hc0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">critical role</a> that higher education plays in development. Other contributing factors included institutional and national policies, improved access and funding. There were also international imperatives like favourable global higher education policies.</p>
<p>The continent’s higher education system is only superficially covered in the popular media. Much of what has been written about Africa’s universities – and particularly its flagship institutions – focuses only on their shortcomings and the challenges they face. </p>
<p>I have spent the past two years working with a team of researchers to <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10734-015-9939-x">collect data</a> with a view to analysing higher education institutions in Africa. We used 11 leading universities as case studies and focused particularly on their contributions.</p>
<p>The study analysed and documented the institutions’ contributions in teaching, learning, graduates and research productivity. It revealed that flagship universities have made huge contributions to capacity building and skills development in the decades following Africa’s independence. This remains true right up to the present. </p>
<p>The findings suggest that they have plenty more to offer. This includes millions of graduates who will make a contribution to the continent’s future growth and development.</p>
<h2>What makes a flagship university</h2>
<p>Africa’s flagship universities are those which were established in the lead up to and just after independence during the 1960s. Their age, size and reputation mean they’re considered their respective countries’ leading institutions.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282434513_African_flagship_universities_their_neglected_contributions">research</a> – which we expect to publish in a book with the working title of Flagship Universities in Africa: Role, impact and trajectory – found that these universities still play a critical role in national capacity-building and innovation efforts today.</p>
<p>Given their age, capacity and reputation, flagship universities also tend to be the most <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150226104329253">internationalised and advanced</a> when it comes to institutional co-operation. This is important in a higher education sector that’s continuously globalising. Their reputation extends to the calibre of their alumni, among whom are Nobel laureates, heads of state, ministers, acclaimed authors, judges, economists and actors. </p>
<p>The flagship universities in this study are in Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.</p>
<h2>Tracking a growth pattern</h2>
<p>I identified four patterns of growth by studying these universities’ available enrolment data from 2000 to 2015. These are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>exponential expansion;</p></li>
<li><p>major expansion;</p></li>
<li><p>sizeable expansion; and</p></li>
<li><p>stabilisation.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The universities of Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Ghana and Nairobi recorded three-to-four-fold growth in 15 years. This can be considered exponential expansion. The universities of Cheikh Anta Diop, Mauritius and Zambia saw major expansion of two or more-fold growth.</p>
<p>Makerere University and the University of Botswana displayed sizeable expansion of more than 50%. The universities of Ibadan in Nigeria and Cairo in Egypt, meanwhile, showed signs of stabilisation with fluctuating growth in both the positive and negative territories.</p>
<h2>Why tracking a growth pattern is difficult</h2>
<p>There are several factors that make it difficult to categorise growth and to develop a watertight pattern. For instance, some constituent members of flagship universities have broken up into independent, fully fledged new institutions. This is a common phenomenon in Africa.</p>
<p>University mergers are the flip-side of this trend. The University of Rwanda, which was not part of the study, is one flagship that has brought several institutions together under one roof.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Moi-University-Closure-Students-Clashes/-/1107872/2789524/-/13hb5vm/-/index.html">Student</a> and <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/university-workers-disrupt-registration-1.1970123">labour</a> strikes, which are fairly common at African universities, are also a problem. Any disruptions to the academic year make it difficult to accurately document enrolment trends or other variables. </p>
<p>The way that enrolment is counted compounds the challenge. African universities’ data collection tends to be poorly developed and managed, even in this electronic age. Data must be cobbled together from different sources based on varied assumptions. This has obvious implications for tracking a growth pattern.</p>
<p>Despite these stumbling blocks, it was possible to identify some remarkable milestones.</p>
<h2>Graduates: the good news</h2>
<p>The numbers extrapolated from this study show that flagship universities have contributed hugely to the training and development of skilled graduates since their inception.</p>
<p>Several universities in the study, among them Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Ghana and Nairobi, have recorded an estimated 100,000 graduates each since they opened. These figures are actually rather conservative given the problems outlined above. In some cases, such as at Makerere, only figures for the last 12 years are available.</p>
<p>Cairo University alone has registered more than 500,000 graduates in just the last 20 years. If you remove it from consideration, ten flagship universities in sub-Saharan Africa are responsible for producing just less than one million graduates since they were opened.</p>
<p>On the basis of raw data from the study, it is projected that the total number of graduates from universities in sub-Saharan Africa that may be designated as flagship now stands between 2.5 and three million.</p>
<h2>Flagships must be nurtured</h2>
<p>Africa’s higher education sector is expanding rapidly. New public and private institutions crop up all the time and are flourishing.</p>
<p>Even amid these changes, flagship universities remain their countries’ academic flag bearers. They are critical institutions. They must be strategically positioned to build national capacity and to advance African universities’ global competitiveness.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is based on one which <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160115172324411">originally appeared</a> on University World News.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This study has been partly supported by DAAD. Other possible funders are being solicited. </span></em></p>When talking about the role that higher education can play in developing Africa, it’s important not to forget the continuing and crucial role of the continent’s flagship universities.Damtew Teferra, Professor of Higher Education, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/519222015-12-10T04:06:30Z2015-12-10T04:06:30ZWhy the time is right to create a new generation of ‘citizen scholars’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104839/original/image-20151208-32382-fbgdhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yes, universities need to produce good scientists - but their graduates should be good citizens, too.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Young South Africans - those born in or after 1994 and classified as the “born frees” - are often dismissed as a generation of slackers. They’re considered by some to be <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/6/south-africa-voters.html">politically apathetic</a>, more interested in <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/lack-of-reading-behind-youth-apathy-1.1645505#.VmV3JXYrLIU">social media</a> than in social engagement.</p>
<p>The student protests that marked 2015 and kicked off at the University of the Witwatersrand as the #FeesMustFall <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2015/10/20/Lectures-remain-suspended-as-the-fees-must-fall-campaign-continues">campaign</a> have highlighted how superficial these observations are. The protests were generally considered to be about financial accessibility to higher education in South Africa. They were. But they also represent a bigger issue. This relates to how active and engaged the country’s university students are in seeking to better society. Not quite the slackers that many were lamenting, then.</p>
<p>Clearly, universities and higher education offer South Africans the opportunity to improve their material well-being. This has personal benefits: access to higher wages through improved professional opportunities, and better long-term health. It has a public good, too. The country will improve if it has more people who are better educated. They can contribute to reducing inequality and establishing a knowledge and innovation based economy.</p>
<p>So how can universities harness the energy poured into campaigns like #FeesMustFall and the desire of students to get involved in improving their society? How can institutions help to create “the citizen scholar”?</p>
<h2>A different role for universities</h2>
<p>South Africa continues to fail to meet many of the lofty hopes that followed the fall of apartheid. Economic statistics show that the country <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2015-11-24-sa-narrowly-avoids-recession">narrowly avoiding recession</a> with a declining growth rate. Absolute poverty has fallen, but there are still 23 million people living below the <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=2591">poverty line</a>.</p>
<p>Institutions must reorient their practices to foster a university graduate who is not only proficient in a specific discipline but also maintains a set of skills and cultural practices that speak to the idea of what it is to be a citizen in South Africa.</p>
<p>We want engineers to build bridges, doctors to be able to diagnose patients and scientists to lead the world in research - but this is not enough. They must also build a range of skills and proficiencies that mean they add more to society than merely economic growth.</p>
<p>This is the idea of the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/19207315/Universities_the_Citizen_Scholar_and_the_Future_of_Higher_Education">“citizen scholar”</a> which encapsulates the idea that the role of universities is to promote scholarship as well as producing active and engaged citizens. </p>
<p>Universities need to inculcate a set of skills and cultural practices that educate students beyond their disciplinary knowledge. This arguably pushes the debate beyond the simple transfer of skills as part of the activities and academic development necessary to compete a degree. Rather it takes on a broader, more societal focus.</p>
<p>Such thinking comes from the idea that universities maintain a social mission that mobilises knowledge for the benefit of society. A central purpose of higher education is to improve the societies in which they operate and foster citizens who can think outside of the box and innovate with the purpose of community betterment. Martin Luther King Jr said it <a href="http://www.thekingcenter.org/blog/mlk-quote-week-lifes-most-persistent-and-urgent-question">best</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?' </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Three skills areas</h2>
<p>Ideally, citizen scholars should have a range of skills and proficiencies. Here are three that are crucial.</p>
<p>Firstly, universities must help students to establish an ethical framework that simultaneously encourages their own economic ambitions while reminding them they are part of a society that they both rely on and whose future relies on them. This is particularly important when confronted by the challenges of sustainability and resilience, and with political systems that have been plagued with allegations of corruption.</p>
<p>A second proficiency is cross cultural engagement, something that has never been more important in South Africa’s future. The country is in the midst of an increasingly heated debate about race and transformation - the measures that must be taken to make society more equitable in terms of race and gender. This often fractious debate and the xenophobic attacks experienced by many non-South Africans are just two examples that highlight the need to break down cultural barriers and misunderstanding.</p>
<p>Thirdly, there is a need to promote design thinking, innovation and entrepreneurship – even in disciplines not accustomed to teaching them. South Africa’s many challenges require different thinking, and expecting different results from following the same processes is going to lead to failure.</p>
<p>The time is right for South Africa’s universities to embrace the idea of a “citizen scholar”. This isn’t only through the education they deliver, but also through individual academics’ own research and scholarly practices. This can demonstrate to students that their teachers and institutions are serious about their concerns and about the country’s future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Arvanitakis receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Office of Learning and Teaching. He is a board member of the Australian Public Education Foundation, a member of the Australian Research Council: Excellence in Research for Australia 2015 Evaluation Committee, Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT): Committee Member: Awards Committee, a member of the panel of experts for the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA and a research fellow at The Centre for Policy Development.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David J Hornsby and Robin Moore do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>University protests in South Africa have showed that the countries students are hungry for real change. This desire can be harnessed to create a generation of “citizen scholars”.David J Hornsby, Senior Lecturer in International Relations & Assistant Dean of Humanities, University of the WitwatersrandJames Arvanitakis, Professor in Cultural and Social Analysis, Western Sydney UniversityRobin Moore, Director: Strategy and Innovation, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/500832015-11-16T04:16:28Z2015-11-16T04:16:28ZTeaching students about Africa may be one way to stem xenophobia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101268/original/image-20151109-29305-128q4z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Xenophobia is a huge problem in South Africa. Could better university teaching about Africa make a difference?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is no secret that South Africa views itself as somehow <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01436597.2011.560470">“outside”</a> the African continent. The country’s National Development Plan, a roadmap for the next 15 years, concedes that even the country’s policy makers lack knowledge about the continent. They also, the plan’s authors <a href="http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/ndp2030_chap6_chap7.pdf">say</a>, “tend to have a weak grasp of African geopolitics”.</p>
<p>Over the years, South Africa has had a bad reputation as a hot spot for xenophobia, much of it directed against people from <a href="http://www.redfame.com/journal/index.php/ijsss/article/view/102/66">elsewhere in Africa</a> who are part of the large immigrant population in South Africa – about 2.2 million according to the <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/census/census_2011/census_products/Census_2011_Census_in_brief.pdf">2011 Census</a>. </p>
<p>People may think that university students wouldn’t hold bigoted attitudes towards fellow Africans. After all, they spend much of their time in spaces dedicated to knowledge and learning, surrounded by people from all over the continent and world.</p>
<p>But research has shown that some South African students are <a href="http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/Files/docs/20.4/06%20RSi.pdf">as guilty</a> of xenophobic attitudes and behaviour as anybody else. This is particularly problematic because the country is <a href="https://theconversation.com/international-students-love-south-africa-but-xenophobia-could-be-a-heartbreaker-41707">a regional hub</a> for students from across the African continent.</p>
<p>Universities must work harder to produce graduates who embrace South Africa’s “African-ness”, treat their peers from the rest of the continent with respect and spread this attitude among their communities. But how could this be done?</p>
<h2>Attitudes about Africa</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/go-home-or-die-here/">Go Home or Die Here</a>, a book about a wave of xenophobic attacks that <a href="http://cormsa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/Research/Disaster/NarrativeHumanitarianResponse.pdf">shook South Africa</a> in 2008, academic Pumla Dineo Gqola was very critical of the country’s universities.</p>
<p>She argued that universities had not done enough since democracy in 1994 to open students’ horizons about Africa. This, Gqola wrote, has:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… contributed to the ignorance of the continent we are part of and inadvertently allowed the faceless African man and woman to remain throwaway people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In more than eight years as a postgraduate student, lecturer and researcher in South Africa, I’ve encountered too many students with indifferent attitudes towards the continent. Most of the students I have dealt with don’t seem interested in learning about Africa. Some have even asked about my travels “in Africa”, as though the country at the southernmost tip is not part of the continent.</p>
<p>The 2008 attacks prompted a great deal of introspection throughout society, though such eruptions have become all too common in the past seven years. Universities have <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150423160546193">publicly condemned</a> such violence – but they don’t appear to have done much else.</p>
<h2>Three approaches</h2>
<p>I would argue that there are three approaches universities can take in dealing with xenophobia.</p>
<p>The first involves teaching students critically and factually about Africa. Xenophobia and similar social ills feed on <a href="https://africacheck.org/2015/02/08/analysis-are-foreigners-stealing-jobs-in-south-africa-2/">myths and perceptions</a>. Careful, thorough and accurate research presented to and debated with university students can help to dispel such myths. </p>
<p>This kind of teaching and engagement can also happen in high schools. South Africa’s government has already suggested that making History a compulsory school subject could help to <a href="http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/66406e004815f9e18593c578423ca9af/History-lessons-in-schools-could-help-prevent-xenophobia">prevent xenophobia</a>. However, higher education is particularly important since it is developing graduates and future leaders.</p>
<p>The second approach involves developing students’ understanding of how South Africa fits into the continent and world at large. Students must be encouraged to explore the links between local, regional and global socio-economic, political and cultural dimensions and phenomena. This will help them to better understand South Africa’s place and role in both Africa and the world.</p>
<p>The third, and probably most complex approach involves broader institutional change. Too many university subjects are still taught through a Euro or US-centric lens. The curriculum needs to be altered so that it no longer <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-take-the-curriculum-back-from-dead-white-men-40268">ignores or marginalises Africa</a>. Research suggests that when Africa takes centre stage in South African students’ classes, their levels of engagement <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-students-must-be-given-the-chance-to-read-what-they-like-41790">improve</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, South Africa needs academics who possess real knowledge and passion about the continent in order to teach current and future students about it. This will require finding and developing new academic staff as well as changing mindsets and developing new knowledge among existing lecturers.</p>
<h2>Beyond ivory towers</h2>
<p>South African universities and academics don’t only have a responsibility towards their students. They also need to play a more prominent role in the broader society rather than mainly observing and writing about it from ivory towers. </p>
<p>When it comes to xenophobia, this means conducting research and engaging with South African and immigrant communities to dispel myths and fallacies that lead to xenophobia.</p>
<p>Europe’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/migrant-crisis">refugee crisis</a> has prompted a wave of xenophobic and anti-immigrant <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11951718/Germany-introduces-tough-asylum-policy-as-anti-refugee-movement-accused-of-Nazi-rhetoric.html">rhetoric</a>. One UK academic has suggested that universities and academics need to open up public engagement channels with local communities. This, she says, is a way to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/oct/02/universities-scholarships-jobs-offer-refugees">“temper the demonising of refugees with calm, evidence-based argument”</a>.</p>
<p>The same must be done to help South Africans move away from dangerous xenophobic attitudes towards their fellow Africans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Savo Heleta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South African university students are as guilty of xenophobia as anyone else. Three approaches through teaching and research could make a huge difference.Savo Heleta, Manager, Internationalisation at Home and Research, Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/452542015-08-04T04:42:11Z2015-08-04T04:42:11ZUniversities need to adapt to become part of shaping a better future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90300/original/image-20150730-25773-1lrllz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's a huge role for universities to play beyond the ivory tower.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">From www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities have three “missions”. The first two are teaching and research. The third goes by many names: community engagement, public service, knowledge exchange or sometimes the <a href="ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/improving/docs/ser-jones-paper.pdf">entrepreneurial periphery</a>.</p>
<p>But the idea that universities should serve the public good has come under strain in recent years. The cost of running universities has <a href="http://www.financialmail.co.za/features/2015/03/19/student-financial-aid-dropped-at-the-door">outpaced</a> the growth in government subsidies. The <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8992136/Taxpayer-funding-of-universities-to-drop-to-100-year-low.html">“user pays”</a> trend is on the rise. </p>
<p>At the same time student enrolments <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/aug/31/consequences-increasing-access-to-education">are soaring</a>, particularly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.</p>
<p>Academics are wholly consumed with fulfilling universities’ first two fundamental missions, so it’s seldom practical to ask that they invest sustained attention in projects dedicated to issues playing out beyond the walls of their institutions. </p>
<p>But in light of the increasingly complex challenges facing society at large, shouldn’t universities be modifying some of what they do so that public service is no longer an afterthought?</p>
<h2>Wicked problems require different thinking</h2>
<p>Today’s dilemmas are increasingly multifaceted. The breadth of their impact is unprecedented. Human society is assuming a size and fluidity that are in many respects beyond conventional regulatory control. </p>
<p>This means the current crises of economy, <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/">environment</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/without-immigrants-none-of-us-would-be-here-41093">migration</a>, <a href="http://reports.weforum.org/outlook-global-agenda-2015/top-10-trends-of-2015/1-deepening-income-inequality/">inequality</a>, conflict and disease have ramifications that didn’t exist 50 years ago. The 2008 <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/schoolsbrief/21584534-effects-financial-crisis-are-still-being-felt-five-years-article">economic meltdown</a>, militant fundamentalism, refugee crises and climate change are immediate examples.</p>
<p>These challenges are typically associated with issues of sustainability and resilience. They have both technological and social dimensions and require systemic changes in society. They almost always imply social justice issues, too. </p>
<p>It would typically require multi- or trans disciplinary approaches from within universities to tackle these sorts of challenges. They can’t do it alone: governments, civil society and industry must get involved alongside higher education institutions. </p>
<p>There are a number of measures that can be taken to help this vital area of collaborative work succeed better into the future.</p>
<h2>Recalculate value</h2>
<p>Universities need to develop organisational platforms that are dedicated to researching complex issues of sustainability and resilience. These should typically be geared to multi-disciplinary participation and engagement with external partners. </p>
<p>They already exist in small pockets. The work of the Gauteng City Region <a href="http://www.gcro.ac.za/">Observatory</a> and the Agincourt Health Transitions Research <a href="http://www.agincourt.co.za/">Unit</a> at the University of the Witwatersrand, for instance, prove how sustained longitudinal research can add value to and inform public policy options. </p>
<p>These platforms should be structured to address themes for sustained periods of time because this is how deep expertise and powerful databases are accumulated. It’s a paradox, but the outfit that is geared for the long run is best able to respond with agility to demands that require a quick turnaround. This is because they have deep, enduring knowledge resources.</p>
<p>Universities should identify the thematic platforms which they are best suited to sustain. To do this, they need to draw from their distinctive niche intellectual strengths - for example, sustained attention to a particular domain by several fields of study, like mining or cities or socio-economic inequality. </p>
<p>It is also crucial to craft a revised social contract that properly values what universities deliver for society. <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/states-education-productivity-growth-foundations/">Skilled graduates</a> and <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/20-new-ideas-from-uk-universities-that-will-change-the-world/2013812.article">sound research</a> contribute a great deal to society and this has long been undervalued.</p>
<p>Consider the business value that an engineer or chartered accountant delivers for industry over her or his lifetime. What about the economic value of technological changes derived from basic and applied research? Then there’s the value in societal well being that comes from a wide range of disciplines, from health sciences through to the arts.</p>
<p>We need a more clear-sighted calculus that shows the benefits of investing in talented people and powerful knowledge. Both the public purse and the deep reservoirs of accumulated capital need to reconsider how we provide for the future. </p>
<p>Evidence-based solutions to our systemic dilemmas won’t be conjured out of thin air. They require sustained investment in knowledge fields that address complexity.</p>
<h2>Invest in innovators</h2>
<p>Some academics are able to confidently, comfortably work across disciplines and with external partners. This kind of research is inherently more time consuming. It requires intellectual agility and personal resilience.</p>
<p>At the moment, audit cultures in universities tend to deter academics from throwing their energy into activities that have deferred or shared outcomes. The kind of multi-disciplinary, multi-actor knowledge work that’s required to trigger systemic change doesn’t fit well into the traditional modes of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-peer-review-27797">peer reviewed publication</a>.</p>
<p>Universities need to map a career path for these scholars which acknowledges an academic identity that is geared towards innovative knowledge making, like public policy advice or solutions for complex industrial enterprises. </p>
<p>There must also be changes to universities’ administrative systems. The conventional bureaucratic systems of universities tend to support “business as usual” - teaching and research. They aren’t designed to cater for the responsive nimbleness that’s needed for real change. </p>
<p>Finally, change must happen beyond the higher education sector. Universities need adaptive approaches - and so do their partners in government and business. While universities need outward-facing scholars, government and business need university-facing capacity to ensure reciprocal flows.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robin Moore is the Chair of the Board of The Conversation Africa. He benefitted from a residency provided by the Rockefeller Foundation at the Bellagio Estate while he was researching and writing on this theme. </span></em></p>Evidence-based solutions to our systemic dilemmas won’t be conjured out of thin air. Universities, governments and businesses all have to work together.Robin Moore, Director: Strategy and Innovation, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/445292015-07-21T04:07:15Z2015-07-21T04:07:15ZThere’s a new mood of determination in Africa’s universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88053/original/image-20150710-17447-1p6pfc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Beginning and Ending', a sculpture by David Hlongwane, stands at the entrance to the University of the Western Cape.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of the Western Cape media office</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Great things are happening in African universities. There is a new mood of determination in higher education institutions across the continent, from South Africa to Ghana to Uganda and in many places in between. Special metrics are <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150709124418900">being developed</a> to measure African universities’ performances in the global higher education landscape. </p>
<p>Some institutions have turned themselves around remarkably and are meeting the continent’s various challenges head on.</p>
<p>I was reminded of this recently when I spent a week at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. By the turn of the millennium, the institution – which is about 20 kilometres outside Cape Town – was in a precarious position.</p>
<p>It was also <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/bid-to-merge-uwc-and-pentech-1.81605#.VaOjT_mqqko">poised for a merger</a> with a nearby technical institute. This would have been part of the higher education sector’s <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20101127225149638">radical restructuring</a> after the end of apartheid.</p>
<p>The merger didn’t go ahead because of what the country’s then-education minister <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/1521/">called</a> “many impressive institutional changes and positive academic developments” at UWC. In the 13 years since the minister’s comments, UWC has undergone a remarkable transformation.</p>
<p>It boasts the <a href="http://prospectus.uwc.ac.za/educate/faculty-of-dentistry/">largest</a> school of dentistry in Africa and is a World Health Organisation <a href="http://apps.who.int/whocc/List.aspx?subjects=Oral+health&">collaborating centre</a> focusing on oral health, HIV/AIDS and informatics and <a href="http://www.americantelemed.org/about-telemedicine/what-is-telemedicine#.Vazlvfmqqko">telemedicine</a>.</p>
<p>In its 2007 to 2011 assessment period, South Africa’s National Research Foundation <a href="https://biblio.ugent.be/input/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=4357326&fileOId=4357327">placed</a> UWC first in South Africa in Physics, Molecular Biology and Genetics; and in Biology and Biochemistry, and second in the country in Computer Science and in Space Science. </p>
<p>Many of these subjects can lead to careers in areas where South Africa currently lacks <a href="http://www.inseta.org.za/downloads/Top%20100%20scarce%20skill%20occupations%20in%20south%20africa.pdf">crucial skills</a>.</p>
<h2>Winds of change</h2>
<p>On this last point, UWC is echoing an emerging trend. More and more African universities are realigning themselves to tackle their countries’ societal and economic problems. A <a href="http://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/britishcouncil.uk2/files/graduate_employability_in_ssa_final-web.pdf">recent study</a> by the British Council highlighted some of the issues that the continent’s universities face. They include:</p>
<p>1) Gender inequality: Just 38% of the continent’s student intake is female. Here, UWC bucks the trend, especially in the crucial realm of science. The gender split of students in science is roughly equal. I was told by one of the university’s key planning specialists, Larry Popkas, that in 2014 slightly more women were awarded postgraduate degrees than men – a ratio of 175 to 166. </p>
<p>2) Brain drain: The council warns that sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of outbound student mobility of any region. This leads to significant risk of brain drain. </p>
<p>The University of Ghana and Uganda’s Makerere University are doing well to develop and retain talent by increasing postgraduate numbers. The University of Ghana’s Vice-Chancellor Ernest Aryeetay outlined his institution’s improved figures <a href="http://www.ids.ac.uk/events/strengthening-african-universities-for-economic-transformation-approaches-that-work">in a presentation delivered</a> as part of the Sussex Development Lecture series earlier this year.</p>
<iframe src="https://matterhorn-presentation.uscs.susx.ac.uk/engage/ui/embed.html?id=4ca99ed6-db0c-4fd5-b554-3d678eb2d413&hideControls=false&hideAPLogo=true" style="border:0px #FFFFFF none;" name="Professor Ernest Aryeetay shares some of Africa's university success stories" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" width="100%" height="304"></iframe>
<p>In 2008-09, postgraduates made up 7% of the university’s student population. In 2010-11, the figure had risen to 11%. In the same period, the number of doctoral students has doubled from 0.4% of the student population to 0.8%.</p>
<p>For Makerere, Aryeetay said, the equivalent figures mark slower progress: for masters students from 4% (2008/09) to 5% (2010/2011), and for doctoral students from 1% to 2%. These are slow but steady gains in an important sector of the student population.</p>
<p>3) Skills: The council’s report also warns that too few African graduates are adequately skilled. It seems that universities don’t research or understand their continent’s economic needs and produce graduates to meet those needs. </p>
<p>Again, UWC has done well in this regard. Its new vice-chancellor, Tyrone Pretorius, has <a href="http://www.uwc.ac.za/RectorsOffice/Pages/RectorsInaugurationSpeech-.aspx">described</a> the university as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… one of the key anchor institutions to help regenerate and shape the future identities of the areas where we are located. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pretorius wants to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… improve our neighbourhood’s capacity, accelerate economic development (and) … bring university education and health services in support of struggling communities. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This message is echoed in a statue by David Hlongwane that stands at the university’s entrance. It shows a <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/docs/WCMS_209773/lang--en/index.htm">domestic worker</a> celebrating her son’s graduation and suggests a focus on the university’s own, economically impoverished backyard - and immediate, local needs.</p>
<h2>What the pioneers teach us</h2>
<p>The experiences of UWC, Makerere and the University of Ghana give some pointers for strategy. For starters, it must be home grown. Institutions can’t just rely passively on government or donors, but must actively seek intellectual and funding partners.</p>
<p>They must also drive up teaching quality and standards for academic staff; and insist on academic quality, integrity and relevance for the labour market. Finally, university leaders must remember that they are preparing students for life, not just a job and an easy ride.</p>
<p>It’s a challenging environment, but with strong direction and leadership, the university at all levels can catch the vision. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Author’s note: This article has been adapted from a <a href="http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/newsletter/articles-2015/en_GB/06-08-2015-RW/">longer version</a> in WiderAngle July-August 2015.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44529/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Williamson retired from working for the UK government in 2010.. He has a portfolio of unpaid and paid work for the UNU-WIDER (paid) and Institute of Development Studies (unpaid) as Visiting Fellow for each.
</span></em></p>More and more African universities are realigning themselves to tackle their countries’ societal and economic problems.Roger Williamson, Visiting Fellow, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/425222015-06-01T05:59:58Z2015-06-01T05:59:58ZAmerican universities: reclaiming our role in society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83422/original/image-20150529-15253-iktfcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">But who will come out to talk with the public? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/71380981@N06/11069730733/in/photolist-4MED4a-hScghr-MSB83-28e964-qENtYy-ch288s-9yrcap-pjYU1o-eFwfDE-6erBSg-64obiJ-agDbc5-2U5KFN-sn7GQ3-3C1uxC-5jDzsv-kX5dXM-4nVNMF-7Wyxur-5DeBui-5zVLmg-9ybBge-9Fh7r-ra8Kzw-aF7t7b-kWCKPt-kY8EUK-2yt1k7-7fisMx-4nVNir-eFq8iX-eFq8hB-eFwfAL-eFq8gK-eFq8gc-eFwfzJ-eFwfCA-eFq8ce-eFwfvq-eFwfy9-eFwfAf-eFwfyW-eFq8hn-4xrahD-4nVNGi-62D8k6-4nZS3Q-a66Ux3-4nZWT5-4nZSnd">Roger </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>American universities are facing a crisis of relevance. There is, quite simply, a growing tension between their internal cultures and their role within society. </p>
<p>But the good news is that a growing number of us academics are taking this issue head on, exploring a broader range of models for what it means to be a scholar within society, and challenging old models that stand in the way of such progress.</p>
<h2>‘Stark fissures’ between gown and town</h2>
<p>New York Times columnist <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-professors-we-need-you.html">Nicholas Kristof wrote</a> about the disconnect in this way: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Some of the smartest thinkers on problems at home and around the world are university professors, but most of them just don’t matter in today’s great debates.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kristof was roundly criticized by a number of academics who accused him of lopsided arguments. But he was actually adding his voice to those of a growing number of prominent academics who are also calling for change, with book titles like <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1933371153.html">Fixing the Fragmented University</a>, <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/designing-new-american-university">Designing the New American University</a> and many more. </p>
<p>Echoing this reality, the most recent Pew Research Center <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/29/public-and-scientists-views-on-science-and-society/">survey of public and scientists’ views on science and society</a> exposed “stark fissures between scientists and citizens on a range of science, engineering and technology issues.” </p>
<p>For example, where 87% of scientists accept that natural selection plays a role in evolution, only 32% of the public agrees; where 88% of scientists think that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are safe to eat, only 37% of the public agrees. </p>
<p>In its most extreme example, actress <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130716-autism-vaccines-mccarthy-view-medicine-science/">Jenny McCarthy</a> has been able to lead a movement in which parents choose not to vaccinate their children for fear of autism, despite the vehement <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-vaccines-are-dangerous/">rejection of that causal link</a> by American medical institutions. </p>
<p>This dire state of affairs prompted National Geographic to devote a cover story to America’s “<a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/science-doubters/achenbach-text">War on Science</a>.” </p>
<p>At the same time, public universities are increasingly struggling to hold on to dwindling levels of state funding as state legislators profess a lack of appreciation of their value to society and parents struggle with their rising costs. </p>
<p>One <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/16941775">Economist article</a> opined that the American university system may be declining in much the same way that the Big 3 automakers did as their tuition costs rise, research displaces teaching as the primary focus of faculty, and administrative staffs grow to unprecedented proportions. </p>
<p>While one may worry about the future of the university in such circumstances, this drift from relevance has tremendous costs for society as well. </p>
<p>Academics have a critically important, though often neglected, role in the public and political debate on a range of issues: GMOs, climate change, gun control, health care, fiscal policy, nuclear power; the list goes on.</p>
<h2>A time for self-examination</h2>
<p>Two years ago, we were part of a group of 10 faculty at the University of Michigan who began to address this problem, exploring our role as academics in public and political discourse. </p>
<p>We started with a <a href="http://graham.umich.edu/media/files/PrelimSurveyResults-PublicEngagement.pdf">survey</a> of our fellow faculty’s attitudes toward academic engagement, followed by a series of <a href="http://graham.umich.edu/mm/brownbag/">faculty forums</a>, and culminated in a <a href="http://graham.umich.edu/mm/">May 2015 conference</a> that brought together experts and participants from across the US to discuss the role of academic engagement in public and political discourse. </p>
<p>The three days reflected the concerns of faculty but also provided unexpected insights into the nature of emerging challenges and opportunities. </p>
<p>We discovered a commitment to public dialogue among the faculty, although there are also concerns that engagement outside the walls of academia does not receive strong institutional support, leaving academics vulnerable to marginalization and even exclusion. For many within academia, public engagement is viewed as a waste of time at best, and anti-intellectual at worst. </p>
<p>There was also a clear sense that this is something we should be doing as academics, but something we have neither the training, the resources, nor the institutional support to undertake effectively. From our beginning as doctoral students through our evaluation for tenure, academic research is our primary metric of excellence.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83302/original/image-20150528-31337-1iksgt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83302/original/image-20150528-31337-1iksgt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83302/original/image-20150528-31337-1iksgt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83302/original/image-20150528-31337-1iksgt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83302/original/image-20150528-31337-1iksgt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83302/original/image-20150528-31337-1iksgt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83302/original/image-20150528-31337-1iksgt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83302/original/image-20150528-31337-1iksgt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Four university presidents discuss academic engagement in public and political discourse at a recent University of Michigan meeting. From right to left: Michael Crow (Arizona State University), Philip Hanlon (Dartmouth College), Mark Schlissel (University of Michigan) and Teresa Sullivan (University of Virginia). The panel was moderated by Andrew Hoffman (far left).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Michigan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In an <a href="http://media.rackham.umich.edu/rossmedia/Play/7c9a78ca3e7c407db466777873bcdef91d">opening discussion</a> between the presidents of the University of Michigan, University of Virginia, Dartmouth College and Arizona State University, it was clear that, while there was general agreement on the importance of academic engagement, individual institutions had markedly different challenges and approaches to its practice. </p>
<p>University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan spiced up the conversation by pointing out that many state legislatures not only fail to see the value of our research; some don’t think we should be doing research at all.</p>
<p>In the face of such concerns, there was surprisingly little clarity on what we mean by “engagement,” who should be engaging, how they should be doing this and what the role of the institution is in the public and political spheres. </p>
<p>There was much talk about cultural and institutional barriers. The criteria and process of tenure and promotion review came up again and again as an institutionalized disincentive to engage. We simply don’t know how to value or even measure impact beyond the academic world where, so often, it is the citation counts – the number of times a scholar’s work is cited by other scholars – that determine success. </p>
<p>Yet there was also the recognition that academics need to jolt themselves out of well-worn ruts and think creatively about how to successfully engage, rather than commiserate about how the institutions they themselves form create barriers to engagement.</p>
<p>Reflecting this, Penn State Professor Richard Alley made the point that if he could change one thing about the academy, he would change how universities measure “excellence.”</p>
<h2>The need for two-way communication</h2>
<p>Throughout the conversations, though, one aspect of engagement with the public was repeated again and again: it must be more than one-way communication.</p>
<p>To be truly effective, academics need to both listen and speak, to profess deep topic knowledge but also express humility and patience in hearing what people need and what they want. </p>
<p>As stated by Michael Kennedy from Northwestern University, we need to begin with the question “How can we help you?”</p>
<p>In fact, despite the urgency and confusion, <a href="http://media.rackham.umich.edu/rossmedia/Play/9abaec96f79547d984f96c84ef2273371d">Professor Jane Lubchenco</a> – former Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and now Oregon State University professor – remarked that early-career academics are engaging whether we like it or not.</p>
<p>Indeed, we noted marked generational differences in this conversation. There is a growing hunger among scientists-in-training to ensure that their work has relevance beyond the ivory tower of the academy. They are already, for example, using forms of social media such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs in innovative ways that older academics neither use nor fully understand. </p>
<p>Many of the nearly 60 PhD students who attended the conference worry that academia may take some time to be welcoming to their desires. This led some to wonder whether it will take the next generation of scholars to drag the “old guard” into relevance. </p>
<p>But with this theme came questions about whether young academics that value engagement will end up voting with their feet, migrating to those universities that provide them with the opportunities, support and recognition they are looking for. Indeed, this could create a new way to differentiate universities based on the faculty they hire, the students they attract and the communities they serve.</p>
<h2>Initiatives taking place across the country</h2>
<p>We are still mulling over the takeaway from the conference and plan to produce a <a href="http://graham.umich.edu/mm/conference-output/">final summary report</a> later this summer. </p>
<p>But overall, what was clear from our deliberations was that faculty want to engage, and change is already in play, with programs like Northwestern’s <a href="http://scienceinsociety.northwestern.edu/">Science in Society Program</a>, the University of Massachusetts’ <a href="https://www.umass.edu/pep/">Public Engagement Project</a>, Stanford’s <a href="https://leopoldleadership.stanford.edu/">Leopold Leadership Program</a>, Harvard’s <a href="http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/">Scholars Strategy Network</a>, the University of Michigan’s <a href="http://artsofcitizenship.umich.edu/">Arts of Citizenship Program</a> and more developing at institutions around the country. </p>
<p>Reflecting the desire of the next generation to change the norms of academia, young scholars at the University of Michigan have created the <a href="http://www.learntorelate.org/">RELATE program</a> (Researchers Expanding Lay-Audience Teaching and Engagement). This program’s story also demonstrates the resistance to public engagement that still exists in some of the US’s top academic institutions. </p>
<p>In RELATE’s inaugural year, some students were so worried about their advisor’s disapproval that they kept their participation a secret.</p>
<p>Whether such innovations will have a lasting impact on US universities as a whole is unclear. </p>
<p>But if the success of these programs is anything to go by, there is a growing hunger for more diverse academic institutions and career paths that enable research and teaching excellence to be augmented by excellence in engaging in public and political discourse – and finding relevance and value in communities outside the ivory tower.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42522/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Maynard does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew J. Hoffman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Universities may be facing a crisis of relevance but a growing number of academics are tackling this issue head on.Andrew J. Hoffman, Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise and Director of the Erb Institute, University of MichiganAndrew Maynard, Director, Risk Science Center, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/381992015-03-02T18:02:19Z2015-03-02T18:02:19ZIn defense of the great MOOC experiment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73520/original/image-20150302-15965-13k7c8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are MOOCs sustainable?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/93112746@N05/11059505474/in/photolist-hRhRES-9Vdrg8-dQkC93-d69m5W-bR3ThV-ggH827-gTdSqd-cJrxNA-dRvhn4-dUTNf5-dDRGpb-h1FxoP-nvZ6HN-ffV2Sy-bVGbrg-ftGwPa-ftGvY6-ftGv6M-ftGuXK-ftWNtw-ftWMJQ-ftGrFn-ftWMcb-ftGqUg-ftWLeC-ftWKWq-ftGpAH-ftGprx-ftWJRS-ftWJGf-ftGosM-ftGoig-ftGofi-ftWHMQ-ftGnZe-ftWHHQ-ftGnT2-ftGnyk-ftGnuT-ftGnbT-ftWGPG-ftGmT6-ftWGjw-ftWFZs-ftGkPe-ftWFp5-ftGjTX-ftWEx9-ftGjiH-ftWDHs">mksmith23/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Let’s face it; we should expect a level of impatience with all things digital. We live in an era where an iPhone release is met with excitement quickly followed by a collective sigh: when is the next release? Shiny things lose their luster quickly in a design-thinking, highly networked world. </p>
<p>A year ago I boarded a plane for the 2014 Coursera Partners’ conference with a Pocket app full of stories declaring massive open online courses (MOOCs) a failed experiment after just two years. As I fly out for this week’s <a href="http://conference.coursera.org/">2015 conference</a> my reading list is flooded again with opinions declaring that this alternate form of offering modularized learning experiences to the masses has failed to measure up. </p>
<p>The only difference in a year is that attention turned from a criticism of course completion rates to the question: are MOOCs sustainable? Seems like a fair question. But is it sufficient? Don’t we want to understand the overall impact of MOOCs? Have we given ourselves enough time to experiment, prototype and scale?</p>
<p>As assistant vice provost for <a href="https://record.umich.edu/articles/digital-education-and-innovation-leaders-address-office-goals">digital education and innovation</a> at the University of Michigan, I have the privilege of partnering with the many faculty who were pioneers in establishing MOOCs, as this university was one of the trailblazing institutions. I also get to encourage and help faculty members that want to advance teaching and learning through the creative use of technology and learning analytics.</p>
<p>Why are we motivated to write the history of MOOCs so soon? This level of impatience seems at odds with the typical longevity of experimentation with teaching and learning. </p>
<h2>Universities are places of discovery and change</h2>
<p>There is a marvelous contradiction in the world of universities. We are, at one and the same time, supremely impatient engines of creativity and powerfully patient conservators of cultural tradition. We are in search of solutions that will enable engaged, personalized and life-long learning.</p>
<p>So, how we can declare MOOCs a failure in year two, and again in year three, while we simultaneously scan the centuries-old “experiment” that is large lecture halls and ask passively for incremental change? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73515/original/image-20150302-15956-bvk507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73515/original/image-20150302-15956-bvk507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73515/original/image-20150302-15956-bvk507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73515/original/image-20150302-15956-bvk507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73515/original/image-20150302-15956-bvk507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73515/original/image-20150302-15956-bvk507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73515/original/image-20150302-15956-bvk507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">MOOCs will not address all the challenges that universities face.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mathplourde/8448541815/in/photolist-dSyZ94-cv7uVU-cwEbMA-e4vnEA-e4A4GW-desGMt-dQqHN3-ftGudZ-ftWGq1-ftGaGt-ftWSUE-ftWMVf-ftGe8c-hRhRES-9Vdrg8-dQkC93-d69m5W-bR3ThV-e6NW3q-dUTNf5-dDRGpb-gTdSqd-ggH827-cJrxNA-dRvhn4-h1FxoP-nvZ6HN-ffV2Sy-bVGbrg-ftGwPa-ftGvY6-ftGv6M-ftGuXK-ftWNtw-ftWMJQ-ftGrFn-ftWMcb-ftGqUg-ftWLeC-ftWKWq-ftGpAH-ftGprx-ftWJRS-ftWJGf-ftGosM-ftGoig-ftGofi-ftGnZe-ftWHMQ-eQ1Dmw">Mathieu Plourde/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of us believe passionately that high quality education can be delivered nimbly, affordably and at scale. We also know we’re not there yet. There are wonderful explorations of learning underway, whether your academic sport is modularity, <a href="http://solaresearch.org">learning analytics</a>, <a href="http://www.gradecraft.com">gameful learning</a>, <a href="http://digitaleducation.umich.edu/about/dig-digital-innovation-greenhouse/">digital badging or personalization</a>. </p>
<p>There is no single solution. Yet, MOOCs have been strangely cast as the heroic Most Valuable Player (MVP) to this sport. They will save the day. Wait, the preliminary reviews are in - guess they won’t. </p>
<p>Without good numbers overnight we conclude they are a failure. Expectations are everything. Problematically, the massive public discussion around the destiny of MOOCs focuses on the wrong kind of “MVP”. MOOCs are not the Most Valuable Player that will independently address all challenges faced by universities, students and others impacted by higher education institutions. MOOCS are another kind of MVP: a Minimal Viable Product. </p>
<p>MOOCs renewed the conversation around teaching and learning. They have given life to educational experiments in <a href="http://solaresearch.org">learning analytics</a>, <a href="https://blended.online.ucf.edu/about/what-is-blended-learning/">blended learning</a>, and <a href="http://www.mblem.umich.edu">alternative credentialing</a>. They have pushed forward important policy conversations around student privacy, academic review, data sharing and cross-institutional collaboration. </p>
<p>But they are, nonetheless, a minimal viable product. This kind of MVP has the core features that allow the offering to be deployed, and no more. Perhaps the greatest outcome for a MOOC is for it to go away and to give life to new long-lasting changes to the way we enable engaged, personalized and lifelong learning.</p>
<p>I’m not suggesting that universities should be uniformly slow and methodical or fast and risk-loving. Both approaches make sense. Some challenges demand near instantaneous dissemination of knowledge while others are dependent upon careful experimental structures and protocols unique to research universities. </p>
<h2>Michigan’s experiment with MOOCs</h2>
<p>At Michigan, there are two fundamental questions that drive <a href="http://digitaleducation.umich.edu/curricular-innovation/moocs/">our experimentation with MOOCs</a>: One, how can experimentation with MOOCs help us redefine public residential education at a 21st century research university and enable engaged, personalized and lifelong learning? And two, what is it that is only possible at a great public residential research university? </p>
<p>As we’ve moved beyond the initial wave of experimentation with MOOCs, our evolution has taken many forms. Let me provide some early examples of how we are thinking about MOOC 2.0 at the University of Michigan:</p>
<p>• Taking a MOOC on <a href="https://record.umich.edu/articles/first-residential-mooc-u-m-students-focuses-health-care-policy">US healthcare policy</a> and adapting it for use on our own campus. </p>
<p>• Remixing and reusing content from a MOOC on <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/modelthinking">Model Thinking</a> to bring complex systems thinking to a blended nursing course on optimal models and systems for healthcare delivery.</p>
<p>• Leveraging modules and digital assets from a MOOC on the <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/introfinance">introduction to finance</a> to flip the finance core and create advanced, personalized learning experience for MBA students. </p>
<p>• Utilizing assessments developed for global learners in a MOOC on the <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/introthermodynamics">introduction to thermodynamics</a> on campus to enrich the residential learning experience.</p>
<p>• Building a repository of expert perspectives through MOOCs like <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/cataractsurgery">Introduction to Cataract Surgery</a>, <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/aidsfearandhope">AIDS: Fear & Hope</a> and History of American Roots Music, to enhance residential offerings. </p>
<p>• Developing an open MOOC data initiative to advance scholarship around teaching and learning. </p>
<h2>Are MOOCs sustainable?</h2>
<p>Each of these examples, and many others, is helping us to think differently about the delivery of high quality learning experiences in a digital age. </p>
<p>So should we think about MOOCs as minimal viable products? Should we think about MOOCs as rapid dissemination of knowledge? My answer is, yes, to both, and more. </p>
<p>MOOCs are intended to be iterative. We should expect them to evolve. But are they sustainable? Sustainability is the wrong framing. If we’re focused on a MOOC as an idea that is first delivered through a minimal viable product and evolves in different ways, we may agree on a different set of organizing questions. </p>
<p>When MOOC experimentalists from many of our great institutions meet in southern California this week I hope we’ll learn from each other about the many ways in which we’ve evolved our thinking since the dawn of MOOCs a mere three years ago.</p>
<p>My hope is that our embedded quiz includes more than two drop-down options (sustainable or unsustainable) and focuses instead on the myriad branches of experimentation that have ensued in a remarkably short amount of time. </p>
<p>Higher education leaders refuse the traditional tradeoff argument: it can’t be fast, cheap and good. In communities bound together by a commitment to the discovery of what’s next, these rules are merely cautionary.</p>
<p>We know that to truly transform learning we must think impractically before layering in constraints. Universities can and should live with contradiction as patience and impatience are both positive virtues. We need to embrace a culture of experimentation that encourages us to investigate new things, find pathways to scale and share what we learn. </p>
<p>Let us not constrain our thinking about sustainable innovation to the immediate impact of MOOC 1.0. Like information, the ideas born from MOOCs want to be free. </p>
<p>If we agree that we should not accept a reality where we must choose between fast, good and cheap, shouldn’t we embrace more experimentation and ensure we institutionalize and disseminate the learning that results?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38199/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James DeVaney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is there an impatience to write the history of MOOCs? Have universities even given sufficient time to experiment with MOOCs?James DeVaney, Assistant Vice Provost for Digital Education and Innovation, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/358912015-01-22T10:46:25Z2015-01-22T10:46:25ZMOOCs and meetups together make for better learning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68614/original/image-20150110-23795-okmff2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beyond Silicon Valley MOOC Meet-Up, Athens, Greece, June 11, 2014.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yiorgis Yerolympos</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Everyday, thousands of students around the world perch themselves in front of computer screens in homes, libraries, coffee shops, and Internet cafes to take a massive open online course (MOOC). </p>
<p>It’s no wonder MOOCs are so popular. They’re free. They’re taught by professors at accredited, well-known institutions. </p>
<p>In April 2014, I developed a MOOC on entrepreneurship for <a href="http://www.case.edu/">Case Western Reserve University</a> which has attracted more than 39,000 students from 190 countries to date. </p>
<p>Once the course launched, the team and I spent hours reading and responding to posts on my discussion boards. I answered the hundreds of student emails and connected with them on LinkedIn. I hosted weekly live online <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBELrG1nZ2U6DzqlJeWjKanDIxwNwI_99">panel discussions via WebEx</a> with international thought leaders on entrepreneurship to provide additional opportunities for student engagement. I even visited with MOOC students in Greece, Macedonia, the Czech Republic and Spain on a trip sponsored by the US Department of State. </p>
<p>Despite our efforts, however, the amount of face-to-face interaction was limited, a common criticism of online courses.</p>
<h2>One downside to MOOCs</h2>
<p>Dhawal Shah, CEO of MOOC review aggregator <a href="https://www.class-central.com/">Class Central</a>, explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“MOOCs have unbundled courses from universities in a way that scales top-quality, affordable learning experiences to willing students across the world…but one thing they do not provide is in-person interaction, which can be critical for many students and types of courses.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To address this issue, a movement in the MOOC world has begun to host local meet-ups. Students independently organize gatherings in public places such as a library or university classroom. They discuss course topics to deepen their understanding of the material and build local networks and support groups.</p>
<p>My MOOC, <a href="http://www.coursera.org/learn/entrepreneurship-development">Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies</a>, uses my home city of <a href="http://www.thisiscleveland.com/">Cleveland, Ohio</a> as a case study for students to understand and learn how to grow an entrepreneurial ecosystem. </p>
<h2>A rust-belt city provides an opportunity</h2>
<p>After years of economic decline, Cleveland was ranked last by <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/">Entrepreneur Magazine</a> in 2002 for support of entrepreneurship. At this low point about 10 years ago, a massive effort was launched to develop Cleveland’s start-up community. Cleveland could not create a start-up community like Silicon Valley. The city doesn’t have droves of young tech billionaires making investments in local start ups. Instead community leaders got creative and recruited support from people and institutions that were not typically associated with a start up community. Government, public and private donors, and the private sector worked together to develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem providing funds, mentoring, and resources for new businesses. </p>
<p>I created a MOOC so that people in other communities could learn from Cleveland’s journey. Implementing a Cleveland-like strategy to develop a start-up friendly community requires the support and leadership from an array of people, time, money, and a coordination of multiple efforts. To catalyze discussions, I encouraged my students to organize local meet-ups to explore ways of applying the lessons from my course. </p>
<h2>An idea gets exported</h2>
<p>One MOOC student in Düsseldorf, Germany, <a href="http://about.me/arjantupan">Arjan Tupan</a>, accepted the challenge. Arjan, an entrepreneur who started his own consulting company, brought together several local partners, including a university <a href="http://www.ebc-hochschule.de/en/">EBC Hochschule</a>, a non-governmental organization supporting entrepreneurship <a href="http://www.startupdorf.de/">StartupDorf</a> and the <a href="http://duesseldorf.usconsulate.gov/">Consulate General of the United States, Düsseldorf</a> to host meet-ups in two local co-working spaces in Düsseldorf.</p>
<p>During their meet-up sessions, students watched video lectures from the MOOC, hosted local experts as guest speakers and engaged in brainstorming sessions to discuss ways to improve support for entrepreneurship in Düsseldorf. At their fifth and final meet-up in November 2014, the group developed several projects for 2015, including the creation of “pitch clinics” for entrepreneurs, a local start-up Hall of Fame, a shared calendar for the entrepreneurship community and a plan to create original from a Düsseldorf perspective. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68504/original/image-20150108-23801-1bm9pfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68504/original/image-20150108-23801-1bm9pfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68504/original/image-20150108-23801-1bm9pfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68504/original/image-20150108-23801-1bm9pfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68504/original/image-20150108-23801-1bm9pfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68504/original/image-20150108-23801-1bm9pfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68504/original/image-20150108-23801-1bm9pfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Jetel from Sirius Venture Partners addresses Beyond Silicon Valley MOOC Meet-Up in Düsseldorf, Germany, November 13, 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">StartupDorf</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Local meet-ups organized by Arjan and other partners around the world had a significant impact on the learning experience of Beyond Silicon Valley MOOC students in these communities. These grass-roots gatherings gave students the same opportunity to learn from one another as in a traditional classroom, as Jeff Wofford, the Facility Manager at the <a href="http://belize.usembassy.gov/">United States Embassy in Belmopan, Belize</a> who facilitated MOOC-inspired meet-ups in Belize, experienced.</p>
<p>“Students here gained a lot of insight by taking the time to sit and discuss the lessons in person,” Wofford noted. “We had a nice cross-section of attendees, from <a href="http://www.ub.edu.bz/">University of Belize</a> students to Belizeans who had owned and operated businesses for decades. In several instances, a comment made by one of the students lead to one of those great ‘a-ha!’ moments with another student, and the exchanges went both ways.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68613/original/image-20150110-23795-10jg0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68613/original/image-20150110-23795-10jg0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68613/original/image-20150110-23795-10jg0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68613/original/image-20150110-23795-10jg0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68613/original/image-20150110-23795-10jg0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68613/original/image-20150110-23795-10jg0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68613/original/image-20150110-23795-10jg0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participants in the Beyond Silicon Valley MOOC Meet-Ups at the Deputy Chief of Mission Residence, United State Embassy, Belmopan, Belize, June 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">US Embassy Belmopan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I worked with U.S. embassies and consulates, local universities, seed accelerators and the <a href="http://www.microsoftinnovationcenters.com/">Microsoft Innovation Centers </a>to organize meet ups around the world. Some partners translated subtitles of my video lectures into local languages, which also deepens the student experience and helps to reach a larger audience. Beyond Silicon Valley has been translated into 10 languages, the most of any course on the <a href="https://www.coursera.org/">Coursera</a> platform. </p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>I am not alone in emphasizing meet-ups as an integral part of my MOOC. More than 60 groups in 52 cities have formed to take MOOCs on <a href="http://moocs.meetup.com/">Meetup</a>, the world’s largest network of local groups. Coursera, the largest provider of MOOCs, has a <a href="https://www.coursera.org/about/programs/learningHubs">Learning Hubs Initiative</a>, which establishes physical spaces for students to access their classes. Coursera <a href="http://blog.coursera.org/post/84322385012/new-learning-hubs-locations-hosted-by-the-new-york">reports</a> that their Learning Hubs participants show higher completion rates ranging from 30 - 100% vs. the 6.8% Coursera-wide average. </p>
<p>Researchers at the <a href="http://chili.epfl.ch/">Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction Lab (CHILI), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne</a> in Lausanne, Switzerland reported in a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01587919.2014.917708#.VLFnC8nAvGk">June 2014 study</a> that “watching MOOCs in groups provides (a) highly satisfying learning experience as learners feel connected and interactions among them are enabled.” As the BBC’s Sean Coughlin wrote in his <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26925463">April 2014 article</a> about the expansion of MOOC meet-ups around the world, “even virtual students want to have a cup of coffee and a conversation after a lecture.” </p>
<p>I enjoy teaching my traditional face-to-face courses at the <a href="http://weatherhead.case.edu/">Weatherhead School of Management</a>. Each semester I have the opportunity to meet and nurture the professional growth of some 200+ students. That experience is valuable and presents opportunities that a student is unlikely to derive from a MOOC. But the Beyond Silicon Valley MOOC has demonstrated to me that online courses can be incredibly effective and spread ideas to people in corners of the world who may never travel to Cleveland or be able to afford a class at a school like Case Western Reserve. Despite the lack of professor-student interaction, local meet-ups can produce a more meaningful educational experience and spark innovation for the online student. </p>
<p>Teaching is not an end in itself. I don’t see my job as simply to deposit new information into the heads of my students. A course should inspire students to think, reflect, and act – to create something new and worthwhile in the world and influence the future. With an online course, students must by necessity take responsibility for their learning and also how they engage with and act upon their knowledge. Fostering this process and watching it unfold through my MOOC has been one of the most gratifying experiences. I can’t wait to see what the students will produce in 2015.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael E. Goldberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Everyday, thousands of students around the world perch themselves in front of computer screens in homes, libraries, coffee shops, and Internet cafes to take a massive open online course (MOOC). It’s no…Michael E. Goldberg, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Design and Innovation Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/319372014-10-20T10:29:03Z2014-10-20T10:29:03ZInterdisciplinary research must sit at the heart of universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/61977/original/zfbhz5zv-1413456641.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Trespassers will not be prosecuted'.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://ordered-universe.com">Giles Gasper</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bringing together great academic minds and diverse perspectives from different disciplines can transform university research. A recent project at <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/hearingthevoice/">Durham University called “Hearing the Voice”</a> challenges conventional assumptions about the “problems” confronted by people who hear voices. By bringing together a range of disciplines, including humanities and social science researchers, it has opened up new avenues for thinking about the experience of hearing voices. Another project: “The Ordered Universe”, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/medieval-bishops-theory-resembles-modern-concept-of-multiple-universes-25460">collaboration between historians and physicists</a> to co-translate the writings of bishop and theologian Robert Grossteste, has revealed the extraordinary sophistication of science in the medieval period. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/multi-discipline-courses-will-help-solve-emerging-global-problems-30557">recent piece on The Conversation</a>, Amber Griffiths made a persuasive call for higher education to break free from its disciplinary boundaries. She pointed out that students now need to learn from a whole range of disciplines if they are are to go on and tackle the global problems such as climate change that individual subjects cannot solve. </p>
<p>Many excellent interdisciplinary programmes do exist. But although universities and funding bodies pay lip-service to the importance of multi-discipline research, we argue, in a new <a href="http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/en/research-resources/published-research/research-by-theme/collaboration-and-partnership/leading-interdisciplinary-research-transforming-the-academic-landscape-.cfm?utm_source=research&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mcleish">Leadership Foundation piece</a> that there is a long way to go before the reality matches the rhetoric.</p>
<p>One reason that interdisciplinary research has not managed to reshape university infrastructures effectively – through appointments, promotion, research evaluation, funding streams or departments – is because it is seen as a peripheral concern. Yet the historical roots of the university and philosophies of learning point to a radically different idea of its importance at the heart of the academy.</p>
<p>Theologian Nicholas Lash <a href="http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511554711">urged academics</a> to recall the foundational connections underlying all disciplines: “Notwithstanding the accelerated fragments of specialised academic activities, we trample in each other’s territory… whether we want to or not”. Lash’s claim is that cross-disciplinary thinking returns us to our contemplative core and, by regenerating intellectual flows between disciplines, creates new, rather than merely parallel, conversations and outcomes.</p>
<h2>Working in silos</h2>
<p>Academic “subcultures” differentiate themselves from each other by focusing on particular domains and developing exclusive languages. The identities of academics in different disciplines therefore rely on what sociologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Distinction.html?id=nVaS6gS9Jz4C">termed “distinction”</a> – an active process providing a sense of belonging as well as social capital in the form of academic status, resources, security and intellectual or political influence. </p>
<p>In an academic environment dominated by the neo-liberal ideologies of a market-driven economy, a lot of value is invested in the search for competitive advantage. In a commodified higher education sector, thinking in a more co-operative interdisciplinary way is potentially subversive. Yet as well as delivering the comprehensive grasp of technology, global politics and culture that is needed to address complex social and environmental issues, such thinking takes learning back to its roots. </p>
<p>Real commitment to interdisciplinary research requires different approaches to leadership, academic practice and resource distribution. A competitive environment encourages the everyday use of military or sporting metaphors: “champions” lead “troops” to “capture” grants and intellectual “territory”. A typical example is the formal establishment of a <a href="http://www.ntu.ac.uk/services_for_business/innovation/funded_support/index.html">“grant capture team” at Nottingham Trent University</a> to help match ideas with funding opportunities. </p>
<h2>Readiness to co-operate</h2>
<p>But the open exchange of ideas essential to successful interdisciplinary collaboration is not helped by competitive defence of academic territory, nor by aggressive attempts to claim it. Instead, it is enabled by a willingness to put aside individual interests and to risk participation in a generous, collective endeavour. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60298/original/257j8hst-1411992162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60298/original/257j8hst-1411992162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60298/original/257j8hst-1411992162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60298/original/257j8hst-1411992162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60298/original/257j8hst-1411992162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60298/original/257j8hst-1411992162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/60298/original/257j8hst-1411992162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Durham University’s Institute of Advanced Study.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Durham University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such generosity needs to include time commitment, since building a collective research enterprise requires open and patient communication. As well as articulating their work in ways that researchers from disparate areas can understand, academics must also be willing to learn about their collaborators’ ideas and methods.</p>
<p>They need to give each other “permission” to make observations, suggestions and recommendations that transgress disciplinary boundaries, potentially in any direction. Successful interdisciplinary projects announce to newcomers that “trespassers will not be prosecuted”. The confidence to make observations about each others’ disciplines, and the grace to receive them, can provide new levels of understanding. But such comments sit uneasily in universities which may be focused on short-termist reactions to an ongoing funding crisis.</p>
<h2>Funders need to catch up</h2>
<p>New research structures are required, as much as new leadership and practice. Interdisciplinary institutes and centres can provide space, support for intellectual exchange and a sense of community. Centres exploring topics such as environmental change, water issues or energy use have bridged departments in several UK universities. For example, the <a href="http://www.dundee.ac.uk/water/">Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science</a> at Dundee University, supports visiting researchers from a range of disciplines to look at issues such as flooding and the impact of climate change and land use on groundwater.</p>
<p>Institutes of Advanced Study, such as the one we have developed at <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/ias/">Durham University</a>, provide more radically innovative spaces, connecting every subject area across the university and offering fellowships for visiting researchers. </p>
<p>But the infrastructures of evaluating the quality of research in higher education, managed through the <a href="http://www.ref.ac.uk/">Research Excellence Framework</a> and by the UK higher education funding councils, remain fragmented along disciplinary lines. This means there is currently little capacity to support the more transformative exchanges of ideas that are so essential to the vitality of the academy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31937/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom McLeish receives research funding from EPSRC, AHRC and the Templeton Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veronica Strang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bringing together great academic minds and diverse perspectives from different disciplines can transform university research. A recent project at Durham University called “Hearing the Voice” challenges…Tom McLeish, Professor of Physics and former Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Durham UniversityVeronica Strang, Professor of Anthropology, Executive Director of Institute of Advanced Study, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/296162014-07-25T10:40:01Z2014-07-25T10:40:01ZWhy we must challenge notion that there are too many students<p>The debate around how to finance undergraduate education at English universities has been reignited <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmbis/558/55806.htm#a15">by a new report</a> from the business, innovation and skills select committee questioning the sustainability of the current student finance system. Business secretary Vince Cable <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmbis/558/55806.htm#a15">has also announced</a> that he plans to put on hold the sell-off of the student loan book in this parliament. </p>
<p>This has led some in the higher education sector, including the Russell Group of universities, to <a href="http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/russell-group-latest-news/155-2014/8571-bis-select-committee-report-on-student-finance-system/">call on the government to abandon its plan</a> to remove the cap on the number of students universities will be able to recruit in 2015-16, citing concerns about affordability and value for money. </p>
<p>Last autumn, the chancellor <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/undergraduate-numbers-cap-to-be-abolished-osborne/2009667.article">George Osborne announced</a> the government’s plan to lift controls on how many students could study at English universities. </p>
<p>According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, selling off the loan book to pay for more students is <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/numbers-expansion-plan-is-economic-nonsense/2009677.article">“economic nonsense”</a>. It always seemed like an accountancy trick in order to expand the sector without affecting the government’s borrowing figures. The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jul/22/student-loan-u-turn-cost-twelve-billion">Office of Budget Responsibility indicated</a> the decision to abandon the student loan book sale could be worth £12bn. </p>
<p>I sincerely hope Mathew Hilton, director of higher education at the department for business innovation and skills, is proved correct after having told the committee in January that the Treasury intends “<a href="http://andrewmcgettigan.org/2014/04/10/1234/">to underwrite the policy</a>”.</p>
<h2>Don’t ruin a hugely progressive policy</h2>
<p>A U-turn on uncapping student numbers as a result of not selling the loan book would be a huge mistake. This is the coalition’s most <a href="https://theconversation.com/abolishing-cap-on-student-numbers-is-a-good-use-of-government-money-24430">progressive higher education policy</a>. </p>
<p>Allowing universities to recruit as many students as they wish will expand opportunity and foster greater competition between institutions. It will mean more students will be able to go to their first choice university and help resolve the existing problem of tens of thousands of students who have got the grades to get a place, having to apply the following year because of a failure of the system to match supply with demand. </p>
<p>What this policy won’t do, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/top-universities-warn-quality-is-at-risk-with-more-students-8986464.html">as some fear</a>, is drive standards down. Universities are measured on the students they recruit, so it is not in the interests of vice-chancellors to admit more students to the cost of their reputations.</p>
<h2>Not too many students</h2>
<p>Yet there is still a prevailing view, which you often read in the papers, that “there are too many students”. This idea needs to be challenged because it is the opposite of what we should be encouraging. In the “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/22/what-is-global-race-conservatives-ed-miliband">global race</a>” as the government describes it, competition between developed economies will grow, but the UK’s tertiary participation rate is below the likes of South Korea, Australia, and the United States. </p>
<p>A lower quality supply of labour will mean business going overseas, or relying more heavily on migration. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/254101/bis-13-1268-benefits-of-higher-education-participation-the-quadrants.pdf">Robust evidence</a> shows that graduates are more productive and more innovative – in other words by increasing the supply of graduates the economy expands faster. </p>
<p>Having more graduates will benefit Britain, but only 55% of the student loans they take out under the new system will be paid back, according to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-new-student-loan-system-more-progressive-than-its-predecessor-25468">latest projections</a>. As the select committee said this week, we are approaching a “tipping point for the financial viability of the student loan system”. So how can any government after the election reconcile growing the student population with a system that is affordable for the Treasury?</p>
<h2>Other options on the table</h2>
<p>The representative organisation that my institution is a member of, University Alliance, has just published a <a href="http://www.unialliance.ac.uk/helpuk/">report</a> detailing the way in which the government could protect funding for universities, grow student numbers, provide a long-term sustainable system and reduce tuition fees. </p>
<p>The catch is that graduates would be required to pay back more per month than under the current arrangements. But they will pay off their loans much quicker and their total loan will be less. Initial evidence suggests <a href="https://theconversation.com/student-loans-should-be-for-life-say-universities-28525">this approach</a> is supported by students, who favour paying back their loan faster. </p>
<p>Of course the next government may not wish to be so bold and could instead tinker with the repayment model to ensure a much bigger proportion of loans are paid back. But our proposal has the added advantage of tackling some of the more fundamental problems in UK higher education, such as the decline in part-time students, how postgraduates are funded and how we are going to pay for the re-skilling of the workforce so they can adapt to an ever-changing economy. </p>
<p>However the next government decides to alter higher education funding or not, I hope we can move away from discussing loan subsidies to ways in which our higher education system can meet the challenges of the future. How and what people study should be at the forefront of policy making, not debates about how many students and what’s affordable. We need a system that fits around the lives of learners, and meets the needs of a flexible economy. That’s the great challenge for our sector – and one politicians of all parties should be debating. </p>
<hr>
<p>Next, read this: <a href="https://theconversation.com/search?q=student+loan+progressive">Is the new student loan system more progressive than its predecessor?</a> </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29616/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quintin McKellar is a board member of the University Alliance. </span></em></p>The debate around how to finance undergraduate education at English universities has been reignited by a new report from the business, innovation and skills select committee questioning the sustainability…Quintin McKellar, Vice Chancellor, University of HertfordshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/251782014-04-22T11:45:44Z2014-04-22T11:45:44ZThe box-ticking future of a university education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46687/original/xy8756xk-1397734979.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C55%2C1022%2C654&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We got credentialised! </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/edventures/3541838017/sizes/l">climbnh2003</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Among the many changes currently sweeping through US public universities is a move away from traditional seat-time in class. Known as “competency-based education”, it is often done online, asking students to demonstrate they can meet certain core skills or competencies. </p>
<p>Its <a href="https://chronicle.com/article/Competency-Based-Education/141871/">proponents offer it up</a> as a cure to the ills that are allegedly facing higher education today, such as underprepared students, the “skills gap” and the general “academic drift” of the university. Those against it are worried the end result will be a university education that will be cheaper in all senses of the word, but also one that is highly stratified and unworthy of the label “higher education”.</p>
<p>Recently the push towards competencies has become linked with a movement called the “<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/29/complete-college-america-report-tracks-state-approaches-performance-based-funding%22">college completion agenda</a>, which seeks, in part, to allocate public funding to universities depending on how many students finish college. Advocates, including president Barack Obama, argue it is urgently needed to move more students through higher education.</p>
<h2>Quicker through the system</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/US-Program/Postsecondary-Success">Gates Foundation</a> and <a href="http://completecollege.org/">Complete College America</a> claim the completion agenda is urgently needed to get people to finish their degree faster, cheaper and with less student loan debt. It is meant to increase jobs and spur innovation in the intensified competition of the global knowledge economy. </p>
<p>Those in favour include a rather motley amalgamation of edu-metricians in fields such as <a href="https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/guide-benchmarks.pdf">educational psychology</a> who have been dreaming about rationalising and standardising education since the days of American psychologist E.L. Thorndike.</p>
<p>Joining them are a variety of neoliberal think thanks, such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, who have longed to turn the market loose on one of the last holdouts of the now greatly diminished public realm. Also in favour are philanthropic groups such as the Lumina and Gates Foundations that have essentially become political action committees by another name. </p>
<p>Finally a host of edu-preneurial companies, such as Pearsons, Udacity and others, who are hoping to be on the ground floor of the ”<a href="https://theconversation.com/snooping-professor-or-friendly-don-the-ethics-of-university-learning-analytics-23636">edu-metrics</a>“ and "credentials” market in the making. Alongside them are various business interests groups who want to avoid on-the-job training costs by capturing universities and turning them into large corporate training centres. </p>
<p>They contend that if we could only precisely define what students need to know, it would be possible to accurately measure “learning outcomes” through standardised assessments rather than relying on time spent in class. Students could then move through these at whatever pace they choose.</p>
<h2>Cheap and substandard</h2>
<p>Those who oppose this model contend that this is not education at all but simply a <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/08/08/competency-based-education-puts-efficiency-learning-essay">cheap, substandard means</a> of providing students with credentials.</p>
<p>With these learning outcomes in place, a large data system could be used to move entire degree programs to a competency-based model where each student would be required to meet certain measurable competences as defined by the skills needs of a business. Government would come in to help mandate the partnerships working through the boards of various university systems.</p>
<p>Adopting such an approach would allow education to become “personalised” as students check off various knowledge and skills and receive their credential or badge. </p>
<p>Such a process can even be done with few or no professors, such as at online universities like Western Governors University (WGU), Southern New Hampshire University’s “College for America” or Capella University’s “FlexPath”. Students, or “education pioneers” in <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/04/22/competency-based-educations-newest-form-creates-promise-and-questions#sthash.svT5oajK.dpbs">Capella’s</a> adventurous sounding euphemism, who “attend” these universities will then be responsible for navigating their way through these standardised competencies. </p>
<p>The new job of professors in this model – or “<a href="http://www.wgu.edu/about_WGU/wgu_faculty">course mentors</a>” in the eduspeak of WGU – is to develop the standards and competencies and measure students, not necessarily to teach. Indeed, teaching has no real place in this model.</p>
<p>While the completion agenda seems to have burst onto the US higher education scene only in the past few years, the move towards competencies and away from seat-time actually has rather deep roots. </p>
<p>It <a href="http://www.ajol.info/index.php/jfecs/article/viewFile/52788/41390">dates back</a> to the “behavioural objectives” push in teacher training programs in the US and in vocational training reforms the UK and <a href="http://www.hwa.gov.au/sites/uploads/national-competency-report-final-20120410.pdf">Australia</a>.</p>
<h2>Students at risk</h2>
<p>While the convergence of these two reforms in the US is relatively new, they have been fuelled by a third process that has been unfolding more slowly over the last few decades – the transformation of the student into the consumer. Because of the unrelenting pressures of market forces, these students will be solely responsible for assuming the risks of their own education. </p>
<p>Here, education is viewed as an individual investment in a person’s own human capital rather than an expenditure by society for the collective good. The result of this transformation is the creation of a “scared straight” student consumer who is forced to live in constant fear of accruing large amounts of debt, selecting the most lucrative major and finding a good job. </p>
<p>From the student’s vantage point anything that appears to <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/02/27/essay-critiques-how-student-customer-idea-erodes-key-values-higher-education">“slow down” education</a> is considered a “waste of time and money”.</p>
<p>Today, public higher education in the US seems to be facing the proverbial perfect storm. Those pushing the completion agenda want to crank out new graduates as fast as possible to fill a skills gap that is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/opinion/krugman-jobs-and-skills-and-zombies.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0">actually a jobs gap</a>. </p>
<p>Ironically, the very processes that are thought to be finally bringing market discipline to what neoliberal reformers consider to be the much too public, public university will end up pricing those very reforms as “cut-rate merchandise”. </p>
<p>Such a realisation may come too late to preserve public higher education in the US. As higher education systems around the world begin to converge around neoliberal models of reform and open up to more online and private forms of higher education, the US model may soon become a global exemplar. </p>
<p>In the end these reforms may either privatise higher education completely or turn it into a self-funded servant of national economic and business interests that is public in name only. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25178/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven C. Ward does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Among the many changes currently sweeping through US public universities is a move away from traditional seat-time in class. Known as “competency-based education”, it is often done online, asking students…Steven C. Ward, Professor of Sociology , Western Connecticut State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/237592014-03-16T19:35:11Z2014-03-16T19:35:11ZHigher education is more than vocational training<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43225/original/fwqd4nzp-1394063113.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Should universities stick to higher learning and leave on-the-job training to employers? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=134749898&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTM5NDA5MTg4NiwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTM0NzQ5ODk4IiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDEzNDc0OTg5OCIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xMzQ3NDk4OTgvbWVkaXVtLmpwZyIsIm0iOiIxIiwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJJRDVQcmpDWVFmYzAwYmprR01JOFd6MXhoY0kiXQ%2Fshutterstock_134749898.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=1&license=standard&src=N0dnhmRQ1T16lrF4AeJkFg-1-3">www.shutterstock.com.au</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities Australia recently <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-australia-deal-to-get-students-work-ready-23719">announced a joint initiative</a> with business groups to get graduates “work ready” through vocational workplace training. This is to be welcomed but it is also to be questioned – about what it should mean in practice, how it should be applied, and what the respective roles of universities and employers should be in providing it.</p>
<p>Some years back I was at a meeting about higher education and employment, attended by a number of employer representatives. I recall one employer, who had spent the whole of his long career in the motor industry, remarking:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Over the years, I’ve been responsible for hiring something in the order of 3000 graduates for the different companies I’ve been part of. And what I was wanting and expecting, of each one of them, was that by the time they left the job I had recruited them for, they would have changed the nature of that job.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rather than being concerned with how recruits would fit into existing organisational arrangements and master existing ways of doing things, here was an employer who expected graduates to change existing arrangements and ways of working. Rather than being concerned about whether the graduates had the right kinds of skills and competencies, the point this employer was making was that <em>he</em> didn’t know what skills and competencies his workers would need in a few years’ time. The very point of hiring graduates was that you hoped to get people who would themselves be able to work out what was required and be capable of delivering it.</p>
<p>Of course, starting any job requires some work-specific knowledge and capability. This may be merely working out how to fill in time sheets and make holiday arrangements or matters more technical. When recruiting staff, graduate or non-graduate, employers have a responsibility to provide suitable induction and training. </p>
<p>The responsibilities of higher education are different. They are about preparing for work in the long term, in different jobs and, quite possibly, in different sectors. This is preparation for work in a different world, for work that is going to require learning over a lifetime, not just the first few weeks of that first job after graduation.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/news/media-releases/-business-partnership-to-boost-graduate-employment">Universities Australia initiative</a> sets out a perfectly reasonable set of objectives for the ways in which higher education can help prepare students for their working lives. But much will depend on the interpretation and on recognising who – higher education or employer – is best equipped to contribute what.</p>
<p>The Universities Australia initiative seems to focus on “vocational training to improve graduate employability”. This needs to be interpreted quite broadly. All higher education is vocational in the sense that it can help shape a graduate’s capacity to succeed in the workplace.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43226/original/mnvrbsd7-1394063323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43226/original/mnvrbsd7-1394063323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43226/original/mnvrbsd7-1394063323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43226/original/mnvrbsd7-1394063323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43226/original/mnvrbsd7-1394063323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43226/original/mnvrbsd7-1394063323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43226/original/mnvrbsd7-1394063323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43226/original/mnvrbsd7-1394063323.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Higher education is about life skills, not just job skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=146083382&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTM5NDA5MjA4MywiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTQ2MDgzMzgyIiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDE0NjA4MzM4MiIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xNDYwODMzODIvbWVkaXVtLmpwZyIsIm0iOiIxIiwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJPNGU3K0oybmVIZFZJVHNXS1VKNFJReW5oMnMiXQ%2Fshutterstock_146083382.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=1&license=standard&src=Q2_SqCBU0QtHLKf4qlIRtQ-1-36">www.shutterstock.com.au</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many years ago, Harold Silver and I wrote a book entitled <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/A_Liberal_Vocationalism.html?id=u90OAAAAQAAJ&redir_esc=y">A Liberal Vocationalism</a>. It was based on a project we had just completed on the aims of degree courses in vocational areas such as accountancy, business and engineering. The book’s title intentionally conveyed the message that even vocational degree courses were about more than training for a job. There were assumptions about criticality, transferability of skills, creating and adapting to change and, above all, an academic credibility.</p>
<p>I can still recall the argument made by the head of a polytechnic accountancy department who we interviewed for the project. He emphasised that it was essential for accountancy students to take courses in the philosophy of science. What could be more central to the job of accounting than being able to recognise “truth”?</p>
<p>Studying different subjects and preparing for different jobs all require different things. Some of these are known at the time of study. Others are not.</p>
<p>Degree courses in subjects such as history and sociology are preparations for employment as much as vocational degrees such as business and engineering. But the job details will not be known at the time of study. Indeed, they may not be known until several years later.</p>
<p>Thus, the relevance of higher education to later working life for many graduates will lie in the realm of generic and transferable skills rather than specific competencies needed for a first job after graduation. The latter competences are not unimportant but the graduate’s employer is generally much better equipped than a university to ensure that the graduate acquires them.</p>
<p>Work experience alongside or as part of study can also help a lot. The emergence of graduates from higher education without any employment experiences is neither in their own nor in their employers’ interests.</p>
<p>Higher education is about preparation for working life, not for a specific job in the first couple of years after graduation. Graduates who have studied the more academic subjects will require a longer transition period into employment than those who have studied more vocational degrees. The transition may well entail further training in a professional field, which either the employer or an educational institution may provide. </p>
<p>All types of graduates are likely to change their jobs several times over their working lives. </p>
<p>Higher education is for the long term. Universities, employers and students should realise that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23759/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Brennan has received research funding from research councils and policy organisations for projects on the relationship between higher education and society, including the topic of graduate employment.</span></em></p>Universities Australia recently announced a joint initiative with business groups to get graduates “work ready” through vocational workplace training. This is to be welcomed but it is also to be questioned…John Brennan, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education Research, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.