One of the common themes that comes out of Canberra these days is the idea that the key to sustainable growth lies in exporting education, new technology and the retraining of those shed from low-skilled jobs. You all the know the message as it is repeated everywhere: "We must develop technologies from new ideas applied to traditional commodities as well as new and emerging industries." It's all part of being innovative in the information economy that is everywhere.
Australia's pre-eminent place in the 21st century depends on higher education being geared to the wealth of nations, say some of the politicians. In education lies the defence of the nation, says another, who never forgets to quote Thomas Jefferson. At the moment we are caught between tradition and progress. Tradition covers up the deep fear of change that leads to fundamentalist intolerance and ignorance says another. We must embrace change if we are to become modern. Education is the pathway to protect ourselves from fear of change, intolerance and ignorance.
Let me come at this from a left of field position. Consider this paragraph from 'Professor at Big State U' over at Invisible Adjunct. He is referring to the US situation:
"No governor or legislator would ever admit it, but Big State U. is not an educational institution; fundamentally, it's not even an institution dedicated to perfecting an 'educational product.' Big State U. is a credentialing institution. Its mission is not to 'perform groundbreaking research,' let alone 'promote arts and culture'; Big State U.'s mission is to confer the baccalaureate so that the state's residents (voters) can enter the workforce with a college degree on their resume (and a corresponding bump in their paycheck). Education is a byproduct, something that occassionally happily happens because faculty and staff give a damn anyway. Higher tuition and fees defeat the purpose of credentialing if they mean said residents/voters enter the workforce (and the economy) saddled with student loans.....The credentialing engine will continue to grimly churn and grind long after budget cuts and tuition caps have removed all possibility of education."
My comment. The professor from Big State U is dead right. The scholars of old are now dead men (and women) walking.
Invisible Adjunct then draws the inference for the work conditions of academics when she says: "if credentialing is the name of the game, then it doesn't much matter who is teaching the courses and for what kind of pay and under what sort of conditions."
She has a point, you know. One we in South Australia should take very seriously.
Why? This is just a step along the pathway to the future.
Why so?
Because Phoenix is the model of education for the business people in South Australia. It's cheap and flexible you see. They don't understand all that academic tradition stuff. Nor do they want. It's not how business is done.
Trust me, I heard it from the horses mouth. My mouth dropped. Well it woudl woudln't it cos I'm an ex-academic from the old school who thought that universities, properly called, taught students to be intellectually autonomous and to think critically as citizens.
Today it is argued that there is nothing wrong with a dose of inequality in education. Excellance (of the few) is a good tradeoff for inequality. Equality is what is wrong, say free marketeers like Andrew Norton. Writing in The Financial Review (subscription required, 12, Nov. 03, p. 71) Norton says that equality is behind the State's control over education and the ferocious opposition to university reform. Hence equality is bad, because state control over individual freedom is bad.
Now there's an argument to practice a bit of critical thinking on.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at November 13, 2003 11:58 PM | TrackBackBut you know what's worse than being a dead "oldtime scholar" walking? Being a student whose goal is to become a dead man.
You know what else is really sad for these wannabe dead men? If they did manage to get a genuine education out of their B.A., it doesn't mean a thing. Mere credentials have flooded the system and everything looks like the same worthless crap credential.
One of these days a wannabe dead man (potential scholar, if you remember) will have had enough of it. We might see a return of the Weathermen phenomena or something. A group of "credentialed" terrorists.
Great Hegel quote. I will bookmark your blog.
Posted by: MISS EXISTENTIALIST on November 17, 2003 05:52 AM