Applications Open…
Ten years is a long time. It’s the term of office of a University President here in Ireland and hence such an appointment can profoundly shape institutional culture, whether through direct change or shaping the underlying ethos.
The institution in which I currently work is now inviting applications for its next President and the process is rattling ahead at breakneck speed. The ‘mutterings on the ground’ hint at this ‘ethos’ thing, and it is clear that whoever takes on the role has a number of key challenges to address. It’s not an easy time to take ascend to such office, of course, what with severe budgetary constraints and the continuing uncertainties over which funding model our politicians will ultimately adopt (or rather, when they will decide it’s safe to plump for the one they’ve been softening us up for for some years now). But there are some specifically local challenges that add into the mix, including the unresolved legal cases and the lack of trust around our well-publicised ‘gender issue’.
There’s also though, a more profound set of questions which have not been asked as part of this process, and a particular model of a 21st Century university that is presumed to be the only way forward and yet has not been opened up to rigorous scrutiny or debate. Questioning this received wisdom raises suspicions of either idealism (whatever is wrong with a drop of that?) or treason (disruptive academics out to ’cause trouble’, etc). That’s a pity, particularly given that one potential definition of a university is an organisation which nurtures questioning and a sense of systematic and critical enquiry.
In such circumstances, the classic battle cry is, of course, ‘Death to neoliberal managerialism and its creed of performativity!’, or something like that. Hoisting such a flag, however, does little to actually challenge the status quo. Rather, it perhaps (ironically, given its intellectual origins) confines the disaffected to a prison of their own making, by proffering little by way of alternative visions, other than ‘down with this sort of thing’. An impotent rage through which the neoliberals can easily plough their gas-guzzler philosophy.
What doesn’t work too, are either appeals to a golden age (something those of us with a quadrangle find hard to resist) or disciplinary tribalism (the Arts & Humanities vs STEM, etc); both these serve to paint the neoliberal as ‘liberal’ and the managerialist as ‘pragmatic’.
Now, of course, the ‘idea of the University’ has been debated, discussed, argued, written about, and probably also performed through interpretive dance by this stage. The only obvious conclusion from all this intellectual angst must surely be that there is no single ‘idea of the University’. It means different things to different people in different places and times. Indeed, within any single University it is highly doubtful that there is a single, coherent shared vision (even if there is a corporate artefact that makes such a claim — in fact, most probably the publishing of such (through a ‘Vision’, or ‘Mission Statement’) is enough to generate dissent).
This is not to say that as organisations, universities are unmanageable, rather it is the approach to ‘management’ that is crucial, with such complexity crying out to be cherished as a strength, rather than bemoaned as anarchic and inefficient.
As to how that might be done? Well, I have a few modest suggestions…
