UK: Challenge the judgment of the mantras of higher education

There is a special kind of British humor is very absurd in everyday life is a good position. Noteworthy make peace just by the tone of voice or eyebrow raising much of what we take. Both enough scare quotes around the cliche can be efficiently; or critical to draw our attention to something, and laugh at the absurdity of it once seemed to be authoritarian.

Professor Robin Briggs All Souls College, Oxford University, a master of comedy and criticism of this combination is a very British.

Cape Town in South Africa to deliver a lecture at the University of TB Davie repression, it was the judgment of the blinking eyes of higher education policy in a global sense of what usually passes the mantras he intoned.

He began his speech by former British Minister of Education David Blanket repeating the words: ". Higher education, research, innovation and change knowledge and skills to strengthen the economy and society creates"

This statement, Briggs suggested, "unobjectionable enough" is, unless - and here all the necessary sense of comedy timing, he paused - "if you are not allergic truisms".

From there, he got, 'unstated Corollaries' central Blanket a 'knowledge economy' to emphasize the importance of some of the ideas, and in particular the narrow perspective of challenges that higher education is proposed.

From this point of view - which Briggs cautiously qualified as a 'neo-liberal', that neo-liberal doctrine, but they amounted to little more than "buzzwords rhetorical tricks and a lot of work" - it is "essential mission" of higher education is to generate economic growth, high society expand the role of higher education systems regardless of the complex reality.

Finally, Blanket et all’s obsession, rather than serving the public good, higher education is intended to benefit a hidden pocket.

This narrows the university's social functions traditionally broad and diverse, just more of an industry "with a direct economic impact," it becomes. A broad educational mission of the university is to be interpreted as a profession, "the work of vocational training" as its main objective.

Meanwhile, the University of production, research, effectively becomes the core of knowledge, "the result of the industrial and commercial potential" limited, "blue-sky research and humanities almost anything" had a great fall.

Appeal arguing that the evidence is characterized by historians, neo-liberal views than Briggs proposed to assume a more complex reality.

The actual evidence, he argued, during suggested that "large areas of the labor market, employers continue to literacy, numeracy and analytical skills a priority, rather than the work, the formal education to train the recruits."

Also, historical records show that "research and development in a very clear relationship with the generation of wealth" and roundly criticized Briggs 'impact' as a measure of value for research in Britain's recent attempts to impose criteria.