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May 5, 2008
Steven Schwartz, vice-chancellor of Macquarie University, in a recent speech made a distinction between a hamburger university--the management training facility for the McDonald's restaurant chain.--- and a real university, which is what we have in Australia What distinquishes the latter from the former Schwartz asks?In answering this he takes us to a definition of neo-liberal university as engines of economic growth.
In answering his question Schwartz says that it is not the narrowness vs the broadness of the curriculum, nor whether the university is a private or public institution. .He goes on:
One place to look for the answer is in research. Universities seek truth; their aim is to discover, preserve and disseminate knowledge. Hamburger U does this, too. For example, it discovers and preserves knowledge about how to cook consistently great chips. But let's be honest, Hamburger University's academics are not high-flying researchers, unlike our university academics, who are all scholars. This is what we would like to believe, but is it really true? There are thousands of academics teaching in Australian universities. Are they all scholars conducting research? A Griffith University study found that 44 per cent of Australian academics published exactly nothing in a particular year. In other words, when it comes to research, many Australian academics are no more active than the staff of Hamburger U.
Moreover, the the modern public research university is about Industry-relevant research as well as being a vocational enterprise and no longer enclaves, separate from the everyday world. So though is self-evident that Hamburger University is not a proper university -- as McDonald's would agree -- there does not seem to be any unique way in which it differs from our universities. So why are we sure that it is different?
His argument is that the difference between Hamburger University and real universities is that real universities are the engines of economic growth without which civil society would wither and social justice would be impossible. Hamburger U adds value to McDonald's employees. the real reason we need to have a sound economy.is because we need money to provide the education on which our freedom and liberty depend.
And democracy and citizenship? Are these not different to the economy and civil society? For Schwartz universities shape democracy by strengthen the voluntary social groups (trade unions, professional associations, churches, political parties and business groups) that make up civil society.
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