I’m a third year journalism student and have almost completed my degree.
How’s it been?
It’s been good. I’ve learnt quite a bit, met lots of great people and maybe grew up a little.
But I have some qualms I’d like to share with you about what I think is continually happening to the institution of university; or more accurately, the industry of university.
I’m not exactly sure when it began, but over the past century or so our society and our culture has moved increasingly in the direction of what I’ll call “material pragmatism”, that is, placing an overwhelming emphasis on things with monetary value.
The University, despite a slight resistance from the intellectual class, has followed suit, shifting its function from being a place for the harboring and expansion of knowledge, understanding and reason, to being a place the middle and upper classes file through in pursuit of being able to earn an above average salary upon graduation and maintain their middle to upper class lifestyles.
Let me outline a few macroscopic repercussions of this shift from institution to industry.
There has been an emergence of what we call industry specific courses (I won’t name names) which exist to consolidate the existing and flailing structure sof our society.
I wouldn’t say these aren’t inherently wrong in themselves, but the over-emphasis on getting a job out of university has brought about the establishment of an educational assembly line where students are being programmed, rather than educated, in what will benefit them in the immediate future.
The product is a 3D printed humanoid that can function as whatever they’ve been programmed to do, and mainly just that.
The capacity to see the bigger picture and, as Socrates once said, to know thyself, has gone amiss.
With this departure away from thyself has come a drastic case of technophilia.
Desperate for material assets that can be valued by accountants and gazed upon by potential students or customers, universities have spent outlandish amounts on technology that looks flashy and futuristic, but really serves the act of education minimally, perhaps even negatively.
And so with all their funds poured into digital projectors and plasma screens, the University has forgotten the most essential part of any education: the teachers. The real and most powerful disseminators of education have become underpaid, understaffed and overworked and with this, the quality of each student’s education is swirling down the plughole.
Lectures turn into quickly assembled power points while a stalling and unprepared lecturer searches for things to say to fill up the hour.
Tutorials become a waste of time for those who can even be bothered rocking up anymore.
Meanwhile, more and more courses are going online in an attempt to cut costs even further for universities and further instilling this educational assembly line mentality in which students lose any sense of personal growth
And instead they study for that sense of security that their piece of paper will guarantee them a nice paying job with good annual leave once it’s all over.
On a contemporary note, RMIT University academics are currently involved in industrial action in an attempt to try and pressure the so far extremely non-negotiable senior management to provide more respectable pay and working conditions.
All the while, the Federal Government is in the process of lifting its sledge hammer to devastate the current university funding model.
But back to me.
I suppose I complete my degree with a greatly expanded sense of intellect and knowledge of my chosen profession and with fond memories of the experiences I’ve had.
But I can’t help but feel a sense of disillusion and dissatisfaction with the way I feel this University mechanism has played out over the past three years for me. Also, I feel a sense of dread for the educational future of this country if it continues to trek down the same path it has been treading.
It appears all our futures may be at the mercy of the orientation of our society, which is causing the institution of University to become increasingly monetized and as a result, turning students into customers and people into products.
