Dear Lubomir and all,
A quick addition to your insights -I have to grade, too (and I am with you
on most of what you have said). Universities have many shortcomings, yet if
we want to blame someone, or something, it is not them. The neo-liberal
emphasis on value creation through innovation (read: more profit) as a core
mission of universities is a recent invention, and in my humble opinion, a
problematic one. I see the over-focus on applied knowledge as an extension
of this new,(ish) neoliberal landscape.
A higher education system organized around problems and applied knowledge
would be hopelessly balkanized. You cannot create a new discipline around
each problem. Abstract knowledge, by its very definition, problem-portable
(you can apply it to different sets of problems). Problem oriented
knowledge is not (for a wonderful summary of this, you can take a look at
Andrew Abbott's Chaos of Disciplines). Both applied and abstract knowledge
is valuable and they complement each other. And I doubt one can survive
without the other.
There is a wonderful edited volume (by Steven Brint), called the Future of
the City of Intellect, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is
interested in the future of Research Universities (especially in the US).
Most of the topics we are debating under this thread is covered there. It
is a little dated (from 2002) but still very relevant. As a teaser I am
pasting the table of contents here:
Shock Wave II: An Introduction to the Twenty-First Century 1
clark kerr
Part I: Demographic and Economic Forces of Change
1 . Credential Inflation and the Future of Universities 23
randall collins
2 . Universities and Knowledge: Restructuring the City of
Intellect 47
patricia j. gumport
3 . The Competition for High-Ability Students: Universities
in a Key Marketplace 82
roger l. geiger
4 . The New World of Knowledge Production in the Life
Sciences 107
walter w. powell and jason owen-smith
Part II: Technological Forces of Change
5 . Becoming Digital: The Challenges of Weaving Technology
throughout Higher Education 133
carol tomlinson-keasey
6. The Audit of Virtuality: Universities in the Attention
Economy 159
richard a. lanham
7. New Business Models for Higher Education 181
david j. collis
Part III: Continuity and Change in Fields of Knowledge
8. The Disciplines and the Future 205
andrew abbott
9. The Rise of the “Practical Arts” 231
steven brint
10. The Political Economy of Curriculum-Making in American
Universities 260
sheila slaughter
Part IV: Continuity and Change in Academic Work
and University Governance
11. The “Academic Revolution” Revisited 293
richard chait
12. University Transformation: Primary Pathways to
University Autonomy and Achievement
A final note: US Universities may be have a lot of problems but they are
far from dead. On the contrary,by many metrics American universities are
thriving. You can take a cursory look at the publicly available data from
the National Center for Education Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov
I would have loved to write more, but grading awaits!
Sincerely,
ali
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