tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post5050811512783476102..comments2024-03-28T17:13:01.117+10:00Comments on Condensed concepts: Some hypotheses about universitiesRoss H. McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09950455939572097456noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post-74203344089660849992018-11-16T21:32:36.614+10:002018-11-16T21:32:36.614+10:00A university is a
- place where basic, big-quest...A university is a <br />- place where basic, big-question, long-term impact research should thrive. Universities nowadays are sadly too preoccupied with 'right-now' results. <br />- place where open standards and open-source methodologies can and should thrive. <br />- safe space where truth is ultimately pursued. Too many PhDs nowadays are just specific number-crunching. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post-33646989116897265702018-11-11T16:02:45.829+10:002018-11-11T16:02:45.829+10:00Humanities is required. However it should be analy...Humanities is required. However it should be analytical in comments. For example B Ginsburg had this to say in his book " Fall of the faculty"<br /><br />"Ginsberg lays at administrators’ feet a host of perceived ills: the increased curricular focus on vocational education instead of one grounded in the liberal arts; an emphasis on learning outside the classroom in lieu of core academic disciplines; the transformation of research from an instrument of social good and contributor to human knowledge to an institutional revenue stream; and the limiting of tenure and academic freedom.<br /><br />The larger result, he argues, is that universities have shifted their resources and attention away from teaching and research in order to feed a cadre of administrators who, he says, do little to advance the central mission of universities and serve chiefly to inflate their own sense of importance by increasing the number of people who report to them. "Armies of staffers pose a threat by their very existence," he wrote. "They may seem harmless enough at their tiresome meetings but if they fall into the wrong hands, deanlets can become instruments of administrative imperialism and academic destruction" <br /><br />There was Scott Walker Governor Of Wisconsin ( now defeated) , who just along with the administrators sacked several academics. <br />Here is the full article below. The article says " The End of research in Wisconsin" <br />UOW madison is a good univ with a enviable track record. <br /><br />https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/03/university-of-wisconsin-and-the-aftermath-of-destroying-professor-tenure.html<br /><br />This is where P Ginsbirg premise comes into play. He being a social scientist ( humanities) and has rightly said that the faculty has no power. Thirty years back even in science and engineering faculty profs were powerful in terms of productivity and decision making. Now it is in the hands of deans, deanlets etcetra, who can easily be pressurised by policy makers like Scott Walker to do the damage. Faculty Profs must have say in promotion issues, tenure funds, infrastructure etc. This is the reason humanities academics with critical thinking <br /> like B Ginsburg are required. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post-13779394610699686322018-11-11T05:51:22.904+10:002018-11-11T05:51:22.904+10:00The "Universities on the Defensive" arti...The "Universities on the Defensive" article is quite thought-provoking, even if in a somewhat negative sense. <br /><br />I wonder if the other countries are trying to emulate the American university system precisely *because* the universities are now becoming quite profitable multifaceted businesses, and not because of the virtues attributed in the article to the traditional American universities. For example, German system is quite successful in terms of research/education, however it relies on a large spending by the government, which a lot of governments nowadays wouldn't even consider. On the other hand, profitable businesses, university or not, seem to be always welcome.<br /><br />Second thought is about the justification of fundamental research by possible applications. While this is certainly a valid point, I think it gives a false impression that in the end of the day fundamental research is ultimately valued by its applications. I think that not enough emphasis is made on that the fundamental research could/should be actually evaluated by its impact on expanding and deepening the knowledge available to humanity, as well as creating relations/connections between different pieces within it. This, to my mind, is a (somewhat loose) criterion which seems, however, much more natural for a fundamental research instituition then the (somewhat unpredictable) possibility of future practical applications. And as the principle goals set for an institution would definetely affect its fate in a big way, I think it is important to be precise in these kind of statements.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post-78003963959070389722018-11-10T06:57:10.436+10:002018-11-10T06:57:10.436+10:00Ross, I agree with your characterization of the co...Ross, I agree with your characterization of the complexities of this question. A key challenge seems to me that universities are "multi-mission" organizations. For example, at my state-funded technically-oriented institution, some key goals include:<br />- train undergraduate students to be successful in their future careers<br />- perform world-class research and technology development<br />- drive economic development in our state<br /><br />There are of course examples where these goals are synergistic, but also examples where they are not necessarily aligned with each other. And I am sure that others would add more goals to the list above as key aims for their institutions.<br /><br />This multi-mission reality makes a university more complex than, say, a hospital or a business (although those organizations also face significant mission challenges in terms of considering new areas, dividing resources etc.). Rather than comparing universities to those organizations, it is perhaps better to compare to a government - another clear example of a multi-mission organization where separate groups of people have strong and different opinions about what should be done and how it should be done. Prof. Shollhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01478272124748674635noreply@blogger.com