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Single narratives are unlikely to be fit for purpose if we are to be inclusive and open .
What are we good for ?
The engagement challenges for Australian higher education .
By Jim Nyland
The reality of university life is that it is complex and diverse . Universities are often huge institutions which impact massively on social and economic life . Universities are foundational to modern economy and culture .
Everywhere they claim to be good at research , teaching , learning , knowledge transference and income generation . As Chris Brinks , in his recent book The Soul of a University : why excellence is not enough ( 2018 ) has argued , they are often very ‘ good at ’ something : it is less certain that they are in general ‘ good for ’ something .
If the objective is to help create a society in which all those who can benefit from higher education and who wish it could participate and study the discipline of their choice , more attention is needed on the question of how knowledge and learning is organised and for which purposes is a curriculum devised .
No simple and easy answers are available and never have been . However , if we assume that one of the keys to unlocking the power of universities is through the application of ‘ frameworks of thinking ’ about the goals of a university , perhaps we can shift the paradigm towards the engagement function in a decisive and progressive way ?
THE GOALS OF A UNIVERSITY : A FRAMEWORK FOR BEING GOOD FOR SOMETHING
Goal 1 : Knowledge must have a social purpose . Whilst the purpose ( s ) will be diverse it must also focus on the good of the greater community .
Goal 2 : We need to re-imagine the community of learners and the places they inhabit as major strengths for the curriculum . Universities are foundational to local ( and regional ) economies ; they can invest and directly support a zone of the economy producing daily essential goods and services which underpin the well-being of all citizens .
Goal 3 : The engaged university will need to prepare graduates for a future of precarious work , with low investment in public services and possibly privatised degree factories which force debt on many . Whose curriculum do these students need ? A critical literacy is surely needed . The great educationalist Sir Christopher Ball has suggested that in any large population some 75 per cent are ‘ normal ’ learners , some 20 per cent are ‘ slower learners ’ who need more time and support and a remaining 5 per cent have ‘ special learning needs ’ and will never enter HE . A truly democratic participation would be 95 per cent : the 50 per cent rate currently is pathetic our great grandchildren will say !
Goal 4 : Universities will need to sponsor present creativity to yield future improvements . There is no dispensing with the disciplines but creativity is a key to progressive education . Why can ’ t all learners speak some indigenous language ( s )? Where is the critical curriculum which investigates our social lives ? When does creative art , music and literature interact with science to define and expand our future possibilities ? Goal 5 : The borders we have erected around faith , ethnicity , race , social class and culture must be recognised and crossed . Civic nationalism and identity is vital for Australians but this does not necessarily address questions of separate development of different ethnic , faith and national groups .
Goal 6 : The ecological precariousness of our planet must now be the object of our critical awareness and thus of our education . The United Nations ’ Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ) could / should be central to all HE curriculum planning . Environmental degradation is now an existential threat world-wide , and if universities with a social mission are not capable of meaningful interventions then their existential meaning is in question .
Goal 7 : The corollary of the ecological crisis is the crisis of digital life which is accelerating at exponential speeds . Every public and private space becomes a venue for the sale of a commodity . Our lives in the public spaces of the internet are commodities . Information explodes into availability and seemingly all emotional and social processes can be commercially exploited through an addictive technology .
Single narratives are unlikely to be fit for purpose if we are to be inclusive and open in our approach and attitudes . The encounter with difference ( and indifference ) will mean the recognition of contrasting sources of knowledge and their validation within the goals of a university .
This is integral to the work on University Engagement which Engagement Australia and others of course have developed over the last 10 years or so . Recognising and crossing borders and boundaries such as those with First Peoples and those of the academic disciplines are vital points of departure for our future . ■
Professor Jim Nyland is the President of Engagement Australia , and Associate Vice-Chancellor Qld , at ACU .
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