These are politically charged times. Amid the heated ‘mock-debates’ in an overall impoverished political climate, I would like to contribute a few words on the scope and function of the modern university, and in particular where our University is headed. There are several formulations of what a university is, or rather could be, ideas which are – and have been – floating about, implicitly acted upon and at other times more overtly countenanced.
One of these is that a university is a corporation. In this model, the university produces a commodity (read a degree) to be sold to a group of potential consumers (read students). Education is a ‘commodity’, it is produced and sold on a competitive market to these consumers.
As such for a university to thrive it must produce better commodities and newer commodities (new degrees) at a cheaper price and if adventurous enough even generate new markets (read international students, offshore programmes etc.). Customer satisfaction becomes paramount in this model and it is important to ensure that the consumer is satisfied with the degree, I mean commodity, he has sought to purchase.
This has several implications, often consumers don’t necessarily want ‘quality’ products.
Sometimes they just want something quickly, cheap, comfortably familiar and predictable. The sociologist George Ritzer described this process as the McDonaldisation of society, i.e. a process whereby more and more of the institutions in our society start to resemble the eponymous food chain guided by the ideals of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control.
Research in this formulation is only important in so far as it leads to ‘product development’, and is only legitimate in so far as it leads to potential commercialisation. Funding for research is therefore targeted at developing new products and aiding businesses and ‘corporate research’ suddenly features as a ‘pillar’ of the university and seed funding is offered to students with a ‘business plan’, as opposed to scholarship.
A university is not a fast-food chain churning out processed knowledge in neat little packages to sell to a public fed on a diet of saturated and standardised junk
Knowledge becomes ‘intellectual property’ and subject to complex negotiations over the rights and ownership of such ‘property’.
In this model a university needs a CEO and board of directors entrusted with protecting the interests of its shareholders.
As opposed to this formulation I would like to propose a radically innovative approach. While over the last decades universities have become more and more commercialised, I would like to propose an alternative formulation which might sound oddly bizarre. What if a university is first and foremost well… a university.
A university is not a business. It is not a fast-food chain churning out processed knowledge in neat packages to sell to a public fed on a diet of saturated and standardised junk.
This is especially the case for the University of Malta, our national university, the common property of our nation. It is not a corporation competing on a marketplace – it is part of our common good. Its role is not to provide students with their Happy Meal degree or to create the new ‘burger of the month’.
Its fundamental task is the deve-lopment of knowledge and providing the environment for the development of subjects. A subject is a centre for agency, critical thought and mature moral reason.
I believe this can only be achieved if we radically rethink the scope and function of the University in today’s modern society.
Globally speaking, and now more than ever, we need to return to a discussion of the University’s role and responsibility.
It remains to be seen whether the McDonaldisation of our educational system has become far too entrenched even within the people whose responsibility is to deliver and direct the future of our University.
In conclusion, I would simply end by making it clear – in no uncertain terms this intervention is not motivated in any way by partisan affiliations. I believe that this is a process that has been taking place beyond our shores and our periodic electoral circus.
We need to seriously rethink our university – we are not teaching schoolchildren or serving burgers and it worries me that teaching has taken the place of education and commercialisation has taken the place of scholarship and research.
Before we act on our University’s structures any further let us seriously take a moment to reflect on what we expect from it.
Jean-Paul Baldacchino is head of the Department of Anthropological Sciences, director of the Mediterranean Institute and president of the University of Malta Academic Staff Association.