Sir, – The recent announcement by Dublin City University proclaiming its intention to embed the values and practices of an essentially mercantile culture into all college courses underlines that the demands of the much vaunted “knowledge economy” have acquired a power in Irish education not unlike the dogma of religious ideology two generations ago (“University plans to make its students model graduates”, September 8th). To offer some modules or a whole course on becoming such a mythical creature as a “globally engaged and active leader” or a “continuous learning solution-oriented effective communicator” is an interesting proposition and might simply be regarded as a 21st-century eccentricity. But to take this to the level of restructuring entire educational institutions around the narrow strictures of “entrepreneurial” commercial values raises (once again), profound questions about the nature and mission of higher education in Irish society.
DCU has every right to chart its own path, but the call by John Hennessy of the Higher Education Authority for their newly minted approach to become “more pervasive” across the higher education sector was both predictable and disturbing. A one-dimensional theory of education has gained ground over the past decade – asserting that the needs of the economy should be the main (and preferably the sole) priority of higher education. The wider concerns and demands of civil society (not to mention the mission of universities as liberal educational institutions) are automatically subordinated to the short-term economic imperative.
There is no question but that universities must engage with the wider community, recognising the legitimate expectation that they should make an important contribution to social and economic progress; this we have no difficulty with. Yet the elevation of commercial values and requirements as the primary focus of university education marks the sidelining of education as a public good in its own right and will ultimately mean the transformation of higher education institutions into “knowledge factories” and “training camps”, rather than centres for critical inquiry, research, teaching and learning.
It is not simply “traditional educationalists” who will raise questions over this new departure, but any informed observer who is concerned about the future of higher education in Ireland. – Yours, etc,