Egads Hodges!
I'm not against corporate philanthropy, merely corporatised curricula.
Also, I'm directly opposed to a market view of education; the
student-as-client approach to education. Corporate money almost always
comes with strings attached. If corporations want corporate graduates, why
don't they run their own damn educational institutions?
>
>(1) it brings MORE money that gov't subsidies ever could
There is absolutely NO reason why this should be the case except that
corporations now dictate how governments operate and where they spend their
money. Underneath the trend, we see that corporations, if they get the uni
to do their training work, are saving themselves heaps.
>(2) it allows more diversity of practice to become a part of the univ
>curriculum - more examples of "real world" involvement, not only in
>business ed; but also , say, in architecture, law, medicine, social work,
>psychotherapy & counselling psych,
>chemistry and other hard sciences -
Cobblers! Latrobe University just closed down 11 schools in the humanities
departments because they don't have corporate outcomes. There is absolutely
no reason to assume that corporate involvement creates diversity in
education, in fact the opposite is true. The "real world" of human
societies is as much shaped by the nature of the knowledge it uses to
negotiate the world as it does on buildings and bread. If we assume that
business knows best and is intrinsically creative, we're fucked. They are,
generally speaking these days, destructive and asocial.
>the problem obviously is that the money will first go to sponsor whatever
>profits the corporation. But there are newer corporations taking on ethical
>creeds of practice which could be foregrounded.
Creeds is one thing, practice is another. Corporations, like politicians,
are notorious for a "do what I say, not what I do" approach to ethics. In
fact, in my experience, those who go on about ethics the most are those who
are most likely to ignore any ethical considerations whatsoever.
>Me, I often thought it would be good to start up a Travelling Teachers'
>Show, where top-notch educators travel to different universities, and for a
>fee, teach their speciality to the interested students; and at the same
>time, model effective teaching.
That's a good idea.
>In the meantime, I think the key strategy today is to figure out to get a
>jump on corporate sponsorship, and seek out corporations with ethical
>standards to
>participate in cultivating less distance between the university and the
>world-that-lurks-beyond-our-screens.
There is no distance between the university and the real world; each are
embedded in the same social system and recursively produce the same.
>my $0.02 CDN (approx - $0.0023 USF)
You'll have to charge more! ;-)
Phil
Phil Graham
pw.graham who-is-at student.qut.edu.au
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/8314/index.html