January 2023
This month’s reports summarises four articles that in/directly relate to the impact of universities. The first summary is from a podcast of a series on the issues of ontology and the university (Barnett, 2023). The second paper evaluators the evaluators position on research impact assessment (Derick & Samuel, 2018). The third paper reflects on the (epistemic) good that Higher Education can provide (Kotze, 2018). The last paper looks at academic freedom and how it represents a indicators for what regime is or is not totalitarian (in post-cold war Africa, Kratou & Laakso, 2022).
[1]) This is a summary of an online seminar given by Ronald Barnett. Professor emeritus of Higher Education. Where he acknowledges that throughout his long career on writing on the subject of universities and Higher Education. He rather shied away from using the terms of epistemology and ontology, as he finds these concepts intimidating of how much complexity is involved in them and how many divergent opinions are on them. Nevertheless, given our contemporary predicaments in the 21th century and its emerging Anthropocene, it seems that this is no longer possible. Firstly, they very structure of our ideas maybe a source of how universities intendedly or unintendedly in the past have caused damage in both the social and natural world. He gives examples of how ideas about ‘extractivism’ and ‘body mind dualism’ have shaped our thinking of how we engage with the world. He argues, albeit it maybe unconformable and normative, we need to engage with ontological issues. Otherwise, the spirit or the very life that is embodied by institutions like the university may be at risk, and ultimately also the good of what they have done and can do in the future in the world.
[2]) The research methodology built upon a so called ‘in-vitro approach’ that deals with the difficulty of observing peer review directly. In total, there were interviews with in total 57 evaluators from different REF panels on their judgments of research impact both before and after the peer review process. One of the difficulties for evaluators was that “the difficulties commonly associated with peer-review processes were compounded by external, political influences available to evaluators to sway their decision-making in lieu of direct expertise.” In general, to some extend to such a degree that the overarching integrity of the aspects of peer review can be reasonably into question.
[3]) The paper reflects on the mission and role of university, contrasting its epistemic mission of advancing truth and scholarship to that societal outcomes and the benefit of students. The argument raised, makes the case that whilst external goals to the university may appear as their primary purposes, they can only ever be secondary consequences. The reason being, that it undermines the first role in its proper functioning and hence discredits the very outcomes it generates. In other words; ”the extent to which the university changes how it works in this regard is shaped by the university’s overall task of discovering and communicating knowledge. If the university influences politics, it should properly do so through the pursuit of knowledge and quality epistemic cooperation rather than through the mere re-engineering of social standing.” (p. 131). Otherwise the word proper(ly) is meaningless in this context.
[4]) They created a statistical model that correlated quantitative data in relation to indicators for democracy and academic freedom indexes. Their results showed that there was a "high correlation between the two variables and the overall trend." Their inference of why the relationship is causal, is that higher education leads not only to a better educated population that needs to be catered for by the elite wanting to obtain power. But, also that an institutional respect for academic freedom and expertise, legitimises evaluations of election results as fair. Whilst their findings were specific to African post cold war democracies, they think that it is a general finding "that intellectuals are important catalysers for democratic consolidation [and ...] peaceful political competition."
[1] Barnett, R. (2023). Ontological Reflections on the Contemporary University. The lecture was given on the 19th of January 2023.
[2] Derrick, G. E., & Samuel, G. (2018). Exploring the degree of delegated authority for the peer review. Science and Public Policy.
[3] Kotzee, B. (2018). The epistemic goods of higher education. Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 25(2), 116-133.
[4] Kratou, H., & Laakso, L. (2022). The impact of academic freedom on democracy in Africa. The Journal of Development Studies, 58(4), 809-826.
