Believing in the University

1. Sub-brand to go here Believing in the University Ronald Barnett, University College London, Institute of Education – r.barnett@ioe.ac.uk Annual conference, Pedagogic Institute, University of Plymouth, 17 April 2015 Centre for Higher Education Studies

2. Introduction • Contradictory situation: debate - hopelessly impoverished and a welter of ideas all at once • Dominant idea – of the entrepreneurial university. The only game in town? • It seems that the debate around the idea of higher education is over • But, in a turbulent age, and in an age characterised by a circulation of ideas, ideas of the university multiply • So can we identify a structure into which these ideas fit • A structure that reveals a pattern to the multiplying ideas? • Perhaps new concepts can be imagined that might come to have some weight and durability of their own; critical concepts that are also feasible utopias. • And perhaps we can come again seriously to believe again in the university.

3. Social/ historical context • 900 yrs of history • Changing character of universities • Reflection on higher education from early C19 (Germany/ UK) • Until late C20, univs accorded much autonomy • Formation of idea of liberal education/ Bildung – higher education as an end in itself (‘K its own end’), critical reason, life of the mind, personal freedom, and a distance between the university and the wider society. • Last 50 yrs, the state has taken a closer interest, against horizon of the global ‘knowledge economy’ • Steer towards the market – the neo-liberal turn; emergence of the entrepreneurial university/ the corporate university/ the bureaucratic university • Mission specificity, competition, markets, students-as-customers • Convergence across the world (Chile and England as outriders) • But, still, is this the only possibility?

4. Moving currents • Profusion of ideas – in a liquid age • Turbulence in knowledge creation • Disciplines interact • ‘Ethno-epistemic assemblages’ (Irwin and Michael) • Concepts slip and slide across fields of interest • Liquid knowledge, liquid knowing

5. The Idea of the University – itself de-stablized • The idea of the university has shifted over the centuries • Most recent transformation: ‘the research university’ is giving way to ‘the entrepreneurial university’ • But in a liquid world, with its opening of spaces, there is a proliferation of ideas of the university • - in response (eg) to the opportunities and needs of the market, the knowledge society, the learning economy (and learning customers), citizenship, digital learning and changing ideas of professionalism • - and as marketisation encourages new forms of the university – private/ public; multi-faculty/ specialist; local/ global; UG/PG; R-intensive/ T-intensive; f2f/ lng at a distance; pure/ applied. • - so new spaces open for new ideas of the university:

6. Some contemporary ideas of the university(in the literature; in the policy ‘debate’) (1) • The borderless university • The civic university • The socially engaged university • The collaborative university • The corporate university • The cosmopolitan university • The ecological university • The edgeless university • The enquiring university • The entrepreneurial university • The European university • The university as fool

7. Contemporary ideas of the university (2) • The injured university • The learning university • The networked university • The pragmatic university • The public university • The schizophrenic university • The supercomplex university • The theatrical university • The virtual university • The university of wisdom • The world university • The world-class university

8. Dissolution – or regeneration • How do we read this situation? • Is the idea of the university dissolving – or is it being regenerated? • a) it is dissolving: no one idea of the university; simply a proliferation of ideas of the university, without unity • And no criteria that the idea of the university has to fulfil; anything goes conceptually – or seems to do so • b) it is being reborn, even emerging for the very first time, with spaces for universities to imagine themselves anew

9. 3rd option • That the ideas of the university are not equal • Deep structure of the university – globalisation; markets; competition; corporate interests; knowledge economy • - the birth of the marketized university • NB – trans-national agencies such as World Bank give impetus to this ideology • - the university a promoter of marketized knowledges

10. A conceptual matrix • Axis of depth • Not just content with the immediate appearance of universities but concerned to understand the deep structures at work • Otherwise, illusory and flimsy concepts, unable to secure much purchase in the real world • Axis of criticality • At one end, a position of endorsement, tacitly endorsing contemporary developments and resting content with dominant idea(s) of the University • At the other end, a position of criticality, seeking to envisage alternative concepts of the University

11. Endorsement Depth/Endorsement eg ‘the entrepreneurial university’ Superficial/Endorsement eg, ideas of quality - (‘the world-class university’) AC B D Superficial Depth Superficial/Critical eg ‘the edgeless university’ Deep/Critical (feasible utopias) eg, ‘the ecological university’ Criticality

12. The conceptual space of the university • One other key axis: optimism-pessimism • ie, a conceptual space with 3 axes • So how might we understand the pattern of concepts in this conceptual space? • Ideas are found in most regions • The space itself is tilted – some concepts weight the whole universe (those around markets and globalisation) • The region that is a) critical; 2) sensitive to the deep structures; 3) optimistic – thinly populated; but not empty (eg, the public university)

13. Critical questions - & a challenge • Can we find/ identify/ imagine ideas and forms of the university that do not succumb unduly to ideology? • After all, ‘We cannot jump out of our psychological and sociological skins’ (Gellner) • Can we avoid undue pessimism on the one hand, and seduction by ‘the self-images of the age’ (MacIntyre) on the other hand? • - and so we return to our initial hope/ idea of ‘feasible utopias’ Challenge – is that of imaginative ideas that are critical/ deep/ & optimistic - This is where feasible utopias would be found • Is there space for such ideas to be realised in the twenty-first century? • Or has the space for the university so shrunk that such ideas (even if they could be forthcoming) could not be realised?

14. The utopian imagination • The anarchic university/ the iconoclastic university • The authentic university • The dialogical university • The ecological university • The perverse university • The public university (Masschelein/ Simons) • The socialist university (Peters) • The foolish university (Kavanagh) • The wise university (Maxwell) • The virtuous university (Nixon) • The theatrical university (Parker)

15. Criteria of adequacy - Range (theory/ ideas/ practice/ policy) • Depth (structures/ experience/ ideas) • Feasibility (power/ organization) • Ethics (flourishing – human/ organizational/ societal/ global) • Continuing possibilities/ emergent properties • Severe tests, but they will extend imaginative ideas • - and help to provide a legitimation of the imagination • - supplying potency and efficaciousness to the imagination

16. The Ecological University- or prospects for believing in the university [A case study] • Sees itself within and as part of a global ecology • Does what it can to enable the world to flourish (not just to ‘sustain’ it) • Has a care/ concern (H) for the world • Is active/ is engaged with the world; reaches into the world • Puts its knowledges to work in the interests of the world This imaginary university passes muster against all of the tests of adequacy (previous slide) - of range, depth, feasibility, ethics and possible emergence.

17. Conclusions (1): • The idea of higher education is in difficulty • It is being unduly impoverished in the dominant discourse, serving the interests of states and knowledge flows – and institutional positioning – in the global knowledge economy • The idea of the entrepreneurial university is both ideological and distorts the potential and the challenge of the university in the C21. • The real debate is, too, in difficulty – it is often hopelessly impoverished and constitutes a kind of samizdat – barely recognized in public • It is difficult to believe in the university.

18. Conclusions (2) • Just possible that the world will wake up and realise that it has in its universities an extraordinary resource for the world itself; • What are the prospects of an idea of the university emerging that is associated with the largest ideas, of truth, freedom, dialogue, humanity and societal wellbeing? • We need not more concepts but better concepts • Concepts that are a) utopian; b) feasible; c) optimistic; d) universalistic. • Cluster of ideas around civic engagement, democracy, public good and openness are promising • Umbrella concept of ‘the ecological university’ – networks/ sensitive to inter-connected/ global wellbeing/ global community and care for global improvement – but yet contains an openness (of variety, of the individual being crucial to the whole) • This is a utopian idea that is optimistic and universalistic and it is feasible • It still makes sense to believe in the university in a conceptual age.