Good points from Alan and John. To be honest I don't think a bit of
extra accountability and justification for doing something is
necessarily a bad thing. However if the only criteria for judging
research work becomes say Volume Of Papers (VOP) or International
Conferences Attended (ICA) then the criteria for judging research has
become the driver rather than the quality of the research itself. As
John identifies, the real problem is the shrinking of the timeframe
within which research work occurs and matures and the current necessity
(real or apparent) for research to have some sort of immediate
commercial impact.
Finally, this is slightly tongue-in-cheek but to achieve this aim of
academic excellence, should that also mean that the lucrative consulting
arms of some Universities should get completely separated from their
cheap university lab and human resources and become fully fledged
commercial entities?!
Regards
Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: Tectonics & structural geology discussion list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Gibbs
Sent: 09 March 2006 08:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Academe
Hi, I don't know the answer to this one but for what its worth:
Any institution exists only because society sees some sort of value in
it and successful ones tune their behaviour to optimise that value.
Darwinianism I guess.
Right now we want as many of our young folk as possible to get the
chance of a University education rather than in the 60's and 70's with
just a few in university and the rest going into the commercial world
through apprentice schemes, or some on the job training. We have to
accept that, and not think we can turn the clock back to some Utopian
dream of a past perfection - which I expect was illusory.
My kids are currently going the rounds of Universities looking for the
place to go, and there is no doubt that there are some very good
departments as well as some absolute crap out there. No difference there
then. But there is a big difference in that they are much more critical,
and able to judge what they see than I was at a similar stage.
At the other end, as an employer I recruit PhD s. and use some of the
research that comes out of the system. Some fantastic people, and some
research work that is as good as anything we've done before. A lot of
dross too, but there are ways to weed that that weren't around before.
I too think that Universities need to sit back and take a real hard look
at themselves, and some are. There seems much less of the academic
complacence that was the norm 30 years ago and that can't be bad.
As one of the "grumpy old men" I hate some of the things I see in
Universities and some of the changes that have occurred like the sausage
machine publications. ( I can supply a list to anyone who wants to
listen!) But I do remember that as one of the "angry young men" I hated
a lot of the things I saw too. It's the nature of beast, John.
On the whole I'm pretty optimistic about it all, and I think that if it
does go to hell and perdition that Darwin and the smart young folk out
there will find a way to sort the mess we've made.
Alan
-----Original Message-----
From: Tectonics & structural geology discussion list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Malcolm McClure
Sent: 09 March 2006 00:03
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Academe
Well said, John.
The entire academic system is like the Vatican before the Reformation.
What is needed in each university a Martin Luther to nail 95 useless
PhD.
Theses to their Vice-chancellors' respective doors. Perhaps if they read
the rubbish, then someone will get the message.
Seriously if you expand the university population to 50% and still cream
the PhD students on the Bell curve you are going to have theses produced
by people who wouldn't have got Hons. under the old, decrepid but
effective 5% system.
Peer review is no longer an effective deterrent, so anyone with tenure
should be allowed to publish what they dare directly on the internet
then the entire geological community can respond with appropriate
criticism. That will soon sort the sheep from the goats.
Malcolm
On Mar 8, 2006, at 10:43 PM, John F. Dewey wrote:
> Grenville Draper makes important additional points. Academe is
> becoming a big artificial unscholarly game driven by government
> bean-counters . Part of the problem is recognized in the novels of
> David Lodge. Many researchers are not engaged in scholarship but work
> at a rapid, quick and dirty way, do not read or know the literature
> before five or less years ago, and push out as many papers as they can
> on a wide variety of topics, which they cannot know or understand in
> depth.
> There are far too many meetings and conferences, many designed for the
> aggrandizement of the conveners, from which poorly-conceived and
> unoriginal publication volumes result. There are also too many people
> competing for scarce resources. In structure and tectonics, one could
> easily become a Morris Zapp flying around the world to an endless
> string of useless conferences from which one learns little or nothing.
> Science, geology included, needs to move from the present frantic
> random motion mode into a more contemplative, quieter, scholarly mode
> in which people are given the breathing
> space to do long term quality research. The science will benefit,
> people will not feel the pressure to push out garbage onto the
> conveyor belt, and we will not have to read much of the trash in
> journals. However, our government and university masters and
> paymasters have generated a new growth industry of constant review,
> assesssment, and accountability resulting partly from the fact that
> mutual trust has vanished from academe. This growth industry pays the
> salaries of armies of non-productive paper-shufflers in quangos and
> universities, who have a vested interest in keeping and expanding such
> a system. Hence, it may be too late to reverse the progressive
> deterioration of universities in Britain and one has, therefore to
> play the ridiculous game. We need a system where clever people just
> get on with the research that they wish to do without interference and
> being constantly reviewed and assessed , to change direction whenever
> the see a new idea or opportunity and to be given a modest background
> level of funding to do it, rather like the South African system. Just
> as in the NHS, where it is time again for medics to take over and run
> the system again, it is time for academics to take over their
> institutions and run them as universities, peaceful havens of
> scholarly research and teaching, not businesses. Irish universities
> seem to do be doing well in this regard.
>
> John Dewey
> --
>
> -----------------------------------
> John F. Dewey, Professor of Geology
> Department of Geology
> UC Davis
> One Shields Avenue
> Davis CA 95616
>
> Telephone Nos:
> 530 754 7472 (office)
> 530 757 7915 (home)
> 530 752 0915 (Fax: )
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