Welcome back Jay.... I have yet to go!
I have been reading Webster and robbins "Times of Technoculture" (1999,
Candia).
They are quite strong on globalisation, neoFordism, cybernetic knee jerks
and in particular a term they use which I believe describes the
institutional phenomena you observe "instrumental progressiveism"
Chapter 9 is entitled "Deconstructing the Academy".
My notes on the chapter look like this ( sorry for the lack of continous
prose here)
Chapter 9: Deconstructing the Academy
* Instrumental progressivism in higher-education since 1980s, shift away
from content towards skills and competencies; closer links between college
and work, project-based study, etc.
* Massive increase in participation rates (12% to 30% in twenty years)
* Recent retitling of polytechnics to universities in 1992
* Polytechnics traditionally had closer links to business and employers
* Thatcher administration switched resources away from arts, humanities
and social sciences to more practical vocational science and technology
subjects
* Government more instrumentalist in higher education
* Recent injection of business practices into the university
* Government linking the appropriateness of universities to economy
elsewhere we have discussed the notion that the University is now only the
adminstrative structure (although the "people" in admin are not tenured,
their functions registry, finance, personnel, marketing, information
services (computing) etc are the only fixed structures in a university,
and they seem to have two distinct roles.
Firstly they interpret and implement the policies which are determined by
the funding bodies and secondly they protect the university from its
academics. The information services department that are particularly good
at this, but my personal bete noire is the personnel/hrd function who
treat short term contract research staff badly, as well as putting
inrdinate hoops before me when I need to employ (or more typically sustain
the employment) of these colleagues.
We are at a time in the UK where there is a current of govenmental belief
for the need for commercial interests to be involved in the running of
public services ( schools and hospitals in particular). Other parts of the
public sector are encouraged to adopt more "business-like" practice.
Business like practice tends to be "managerialism" and old style MBA
management by objectives rather than entrepreneurealism. It seems odd that
business guru-writers like Senge are encouraging modern business to adopt
management styles which encourage the formation of colleges while
universities are heading in the opposite direction.
Martin Owen
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