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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 'ideas' of the university here, there always have been, despite views of some scholars.
But still. And this has been coming /1
There are different 'ideas' of the university here, there always have been, despite views of some scholars.
But still. And this has been coming /1
I don'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's hollowing out of pluralist democracy to see the university destroyed. /2
Or as I put it in the book, transformed into 'post secondary vocational education' in a techno-nationalist framing.
Now of course Oxford and Cambridge and some 'elite' universities will survive in a 'recognisable' way for a while, though their numbers will shrink over time /3
Now of course Oxford and Cambridge and some 'elite' universities will survive in a 'recognisable' 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'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't.
/6
He was seen as hyperbolic. He wasn't.
/6
He didn't forsee the collapse of a pluralist political system, of course.
But that'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'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 'steering' as Brown and Carasso put it
/8
The state gradually aggrandised control of universities, first through direction and then through neoliberal 'steering' 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 'democratic drift' (Flinders) set in.
/9
The idea that democracy was not simply majoritarianism, but required a pluralist settlement, became a theoretical thing for elites, as 'democratic drift' (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't why it is being remade. /11
Colonial. Patriarchal. Exclusive.
But this isn'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's coming or 'it'll never happen here' thing or 'if I keep my head down' attitude will finish us off.
I'll be honest, I don't know if UCU is up to this. /13
I'll be honest, I don'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'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't go looking for trouble, trouble has come looking for you.
Solidarity.
One little caveat - when I say I don't know if UCU is up to this, I am saying that this isn't the kind of struggle trade unions have to fight, usually. It's more existential. But I very much believe UCU members and activists are up to it.
