By Roberta Geraci
With the recent news regarding reduced UCAS applications, a reduction in the number of University places and the 2012 Student fees increase, there has been an increasing debate about the role of Universities in today’s society. In a recent article in The Guardian Stefan Collini outlines the premise of his new book titled, What are Universities For?
According to Stefan Collini, we need to return to asking the fundamental question of what Students aim to achieve by attending University and a return to education at the heart of University institutions. Collini argues that the fast rate of change in the higher education sector has effectively begun to create a situation where students are effectively “consumers” that are only concerned with getting jobs. With the 2012 Student fees increase, Universities have been forced to act more like businesses which Collini argues poses a real threat to Universities and our society.
He argues that “the single greatest defect of the new funding arrangements is not the whole elaborate machinery of loans itself, expensive and unfair though that is: it is the core notion of universities as businesses “competing on price” (ie “variable fees”) and the half-baked market ideology that informs it. And this in turn reflects an impoverished notion of what universities are “for”.”
The debate about the role of Universities is reflected in the criticism of the expansion of courses offered by Universities over the last two decades. Often the media criticise these “newer” University courses such as golf course management, sport science and media studies, yet Collini argues “it is worth emphasising, in the face of routine dismissals by snobbish commentators, that many of these courses may be intellectually fruitful as well as practical.”
The Student fee increases were hailed by advocates as a way to reduce the number of so called “Mickey-mouse subjects” with the benefit of offering more traditional and “educational” courses. Yet, a recent report suggests that while the number of courses on offer may be diminishing, it is actually at the expense of standalone courses in subjects such as science, foreign languages and the humanities as a result of reducing University budgets.
Sir Richard Roberts, writing in the UCU report stated “One of the hallmarks of a British education in my earlier years was the very breadth of subject matter that could be studied and that our policies are now seeking to restrict.”
The fear of Universities acting as businesses was reflected by Professor James Ladyman, professor of philosophy at the University of Bristol, who expressed his concern at the new funding environment. He stated “universities will look at concentrating their resources on courses which they believe will deliver the highest financial return” as opposed to those which offer the greatest benefit to Students.
The debate about increased Student fees looks set to continue and the answer to the question, what are Universities for?, is increasingly prudent when students are being asked to make such a large financial investment. The pursuit of education for educations sake is in danger of becoming a pursuit only for the wealthy. Collini argues in summary, that there “remains a strong popular desire that [Universities] should, at their best, incarnate a set of “aspirations and ideals” that go beyond any form of economic return.”
