tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3302491936414793074.post5020781800805919669..comments2023-02-26T08:28:12.709-05:00Comments on Modern Medieval: The specre of '68, student activism and the 'student university'Rick Goddenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04109263756022001400noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3302491936414793074.post-68451489611440739512012-03-12T11:12:22.950-04:002012-03-12T11:12:22.950-04:00I am a professor (grand title...I am an instructor...I am a professor (grand title...I am an instructor) at a college here in Ottawa. My tenure, my very existance as an instructor is predicated on the number of bums I can get put in their seats. I find that I have to tweet, facebook, even at times call or email students to remind them to sign up. But then, my courses are all elective. Just like the courses in medieval Bologna. <br /> This concept, in varying degrees, is repeated at all levels in the College, and to only a slighter lesser extent in the Universities. <br /> Universities at the very highest level have to compete with other universities. As the baby boom is turning into the baby bust, universities are facing the same challenges I face every 7 weeks. My sympathy doesn't overwhelm me...they have full time well paid staff to deal with these problems...but I do understand. Will there be a sea change? A change to more student driven degree programmes? I doubt it. The entrenched vested interests won't allow it. They will just keep jacking tuition up, dumbing down curriculae, and becoming creative with funding until they find the whole shambling university structure is cut out from underneath them. Already many arts and soft sciences have been cut, ostensibly in favor of hard sciences in every University I know of. <br /> <br />dumbing down curriculae...http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2002/nov/05/highereducation.modernlanguages<br /><br />cutting arts.....http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/may/17/philosophy-closure-middlesex-university<br /><br />and again.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/3536736/Top-universities-closing-the-door-to-soft-A-levels.html<br /><br />List of Universities closed for good.... http://www2.westminster-mo.edu/wc_users/homepages/staff/brownr/ClosedCollegeIndex.htmAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14680700783923382336noreply@blogger.com