Read on Twitter
What has been proposed today is an end to a recognisable version of the university as it has generally been understood in the UK.
There are different & #39;ideas& #39; of the university here, there always have been, despite views of some scholars.
But still. And this has been coming /1
There are different & #39;ideas& #39; of the university here, there always have been, despite views of some scholars.
But still. And this has been coming /1
I don& #39;t generally invoke my own stuff, but in British Universities and the Brexit Moment I spoke about how, in an era of neonationalism having gone mainstream, this would intersect with neoliberalism& #39;s hollowing out of pluralist democracy to see the university destroyed. /2
Or as I put it in the book, transformed into & #39;post secondary vocational education& #39; in a techno-nationalist framing.
Now of course Oxford and Cambridge and some & #39;elite& #39; universities will survive in a & #39;recognisable& #39; way for a while, though their numbers will shrink over time /3
Now of course Oxford and Cambridge and some & #39;elite& #39; universities will survive in a & #39;recognisable& #39; way for a while, though their numbers will shrink over time /3
...but the issue here is what is latent as well as what is active. This is a clear and unambiguous statement of the government& #39;s idea of a university, which offers no genuflections before the usual shibboleths of university autonomy /4
Yes, they will tell you what you should teach.
Yes, they will tell you what you should research.
Yes, they will refuse funding to student unions engaged in political activity. /5
Yes, they will tell you what you should research.
Yes, they will refuse funding to student unions engaged in political activity. /5
Conrad Russell, who as people know I regularly invoke, mapped much of this out in his little book on Academic Freedom from the early 1990s.
He was seen as hyperbolic. He wasn& #39;t.
/6
He was seen as hyperbolic. He wasn& #39;t.
/6
He didn& #39;t forsee the collapse of a pluralist political system, of course.
But that& #39;s where we are. The Robbinsian idea of the university, which is the usable mythology many academics cling to, even unknowingly, was a curious creation even in its own time.
/6
But that& #39;s where we are. The Robbinsian idea of the university, which is the usable mythology many academics cling to, even unknowingly, was a curious creation even in its own time.
/6
It owed an enormous amount to the internalised lessons of totalitarianism amongst British elites, particularly educational elites. Robbins was was strongly influenced by Karl Popper, for one.
/7
/7
But it rested on a bedrock of assumptions about the wider British constitutional settlement that have proven to be untrue.
The state gradually aggrandised control of universities, first through direction and then through neoliberal & #39;steering& #39; as Brown and Carasso put it
/8
The state gradually aggrandised control of universities, first through direction and then through neoliberal & #39;steering& #39; as Brown and Carasso put it
/8
The spectre of totalitarianism seemed farther and farther away.
The idea that democracy was not simply majoritarianism, but required a pluralist settlement, became a theoretical thing for elites, as & #39;democratic drift& #39; (Flinders) set in.
/9
The idea that democracy was not simply majoritarianism, but required a pluralist settlement, became a theoretical thing for elites, as & #39;democratic drift& #39; (Flinders) set in.
/9
The aetiolation of popular understandings of democracy, the real harm done to people by neoliberalism, and the presentation of nationalism in lieu of community - none of this was likely to support the university as a democratic, critical institution.
/10
/10
The university is not free from blame. It remainded hierarchical, all-too-often patrician in its attitudes, an engine of social reproduction rather than emancipation, despite the best efforts of many.
Colonial. Patriarchal. Exclusive.
But this isn& #39;t why it is being remade. /11
Colonial. Patriarchal. Exclusive.
But this isn& #39;t why it is being remade. /11
It is being remade as part of a broader assault on institutions critical to the survival of a pluralist democracy.
We need to fight really aggressively and not just on the terrain of funding but on the terrain of control.
It matters what we do. /12
We need to fight really aggressively and not just on the terrain of funding but on the terrain of control.
It matters what we do. /12
We really do need to fight for a different idea of the university & a different idea of society, but compromise with what& #39;s coming or & #39;it& #39;ll never happen here& #39; thing or & #39;if I keep my head down& #39; attitude will finish us off.
I& #39;ll be honest, I don& #39;t know if UCU is up to this. /13
I& #39;ll be honest, I don& #39;t know if UCU is up to this. /13
It really is late in the day.
But we need to accept the magnitude of what we are dealing with, and begin a mass politics of refusal.
We might still lose, but as has been said many times, even if you don& #39;t go looking for trouble, trouble has come looking for you.
Solidarity.
But we need to accept the magnitude of what we are dealing with, and begin a mass politics of refusal.
We might still lose, but as has been said many times, even if you don& #39;t go looking for trouble, trouble has come looking for you.
Solidarity.
