{"id":1187,"date":"2020-02-19T12:41:30","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T12:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=1187"},"modified":"2020-02-19T12:54:59","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T12:54:59","slug":"lancaster-debates-the-future-of-universities-and-tries-to-sell-a-few-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/02\/19\/lancaster-debates-the-future-of-universities-and-tries-to-sell-a-few-books\/","title":{"rendered":"LANCASTER DEBATES THE FUTURE OF UNIVERSITIES (AND TRIES TO SELL A FEW BOOKS)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Contributed by Megan Marxel<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A full room, including many recognisable as dedicated subtext readers, attended the book launch for ‘The University Challenge’ on Monday 3 February, hosted by the Institute for Social Futures. This wide-reaching book on the challenges facing (Anglo) universities was a collaboration between Prof Ed Byrne (VC of King’s College London) and Charles Clarke (former MP, former Home and Education Secretaries, Visiting Professor to Lancaster PPR, graduate of Highgate School [est 1565], Cantab, former President of the Cambridge Students Union and of the National Union of Students). I was impressed by this biography and was curious about what he had to say. But what stands out most in my memory of Mr Clarke is that he looked very bored, especially considering that this was his party.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I didn’t actually make it to the book launch itself (I was teaching), but that was just as well. I was far more interested in the panel discussion that followed. Pro-VC for Engagement Sue Black led a panel discussion on ‘What’s Wrong with Universities and How Do We Fix It?’. As the discussion was only an hour and a half long, we barely even scratched the surface.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Sue started by, somewhat defensively, clarifying that she had not set the discussion topic, which assumes that something is actively wrong with our universities. On the eve of more strikes across 74 universities, her caveat was, at best, disingenuous. She then warned the audience to avoid being ‘too strident’ in expressing our views. Her pre-emptive tone was perhaps understandable though, as Charles Clarke is the man responsible for introducing the university fees that have since gone on to indebt millions of British students.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The panel members each had 5 minutes to reflect on challenges facing universities. Little surprise, these were fairly unmemorable, generic statements about ‘collaborating more’ and ‘better clarifying mission statements’. There were a few exceptions, including when Prof Byrne argued that universities were making active choices to either serve as ‘engines of equality or engines of inequality’. Another exception was Dr Shuruq Naguib, Lecturer in Islamic Studies, who described the findings of over 1,000 interviews with British university students that highlighted the need to meaningfully tackle endemic Islamophobia across our future universities.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Despite these spikes of interest, something felt odd about the panel’s overall response to the prompt: not one person mentioned the plague of managerialism, the tragedy of student debt, relentless growth, the burdens of industrial action, or the risks of instrumentalism. Their polite skirting of the larger issues provoked a knowing sigh, ‘Ah, this is what is wrong with English universities.’<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The audience’s questions were rectifying, perhaps because they included impassioned interventions from members of the Lancaster UCU Executive. Particularly memorable was an emotive question about the panel’s recurrent use of the personal pronoun, ‘we’. If ‘we’ are collectively responsible for defining the future of universities, then why do most staff and students feel so disempowered? Prof Byrne responded by highlighting a range of encouragingly democratising initiatives being undertaken at King’s College that left me envious. If true, the trajectories of Kings and Lancaster could not look more different.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Nevertheless, the panel discussion began to open up the types of honest, public debate that Lancaster so badly needs. Even if it comes under the guise of book sales, these conversations must form part of how we begin to fix the many things wrong with our universities.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Near the end of the event, a student was invited to ask a question. Unfortunately, he uttered the word ‘marketisation’. This clearly ruffled Mr Clarke, who retorted that he ‘did not quite understand what is meant by terms like marketisation, commercialisation and neoliberalisation in Higher Education’. I ended my evening by shaking his hand and offering to explain these concepts to him. He declined.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributed by Megan Marxel A full room, including many recognisable as dedicated subtext readers, attended the book launch for ‘The University Challenge’ on Monday 3 February, hosted by the Institute for Social Futures. This wide-reaching book on the challenges facing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,38],"tags":[558,559,557,560,70],"class_list":["post-1187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contributed-article","category-official-meetings","tag-charles-clarke","tag-ed-byrne","tag-issue-192","tag-sue-black","tag-ucu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-j9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":389,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/01\/universities-inc\/","url_meta":{"origin":1187,"position":0},"title":"UNIVERSITIES INC.","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 1 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of the series of UCU Teachout sessions being run during the strike period, Distinguished Professor Bob Jessop delivered a talk, \u2018Universities Inc\u2019, to a packed out audience at the Gregson Centre. The talk explored what Prof Jessop termed \u2018academic capitalism\u2019 and its relationship to an increased financialisation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":593,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/24\/sheer-brass-balls\/","url_meta":{"origin":1187,"position":1},"title":"BALLS UPDATE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 24 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME In subtext 176, we reported that the Students\u2019 Union had come under fire from students for what was perceived as a lacklustre Graduation Ball lineup and venue. With the event looking increasingly like a loss-making exercise, LUSU has now cancelled the event. This is unprecedented.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":992,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/05\/23\/letters-23\/","url_meta":{"origin":1187,"position":2},"title":"LETTERS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 23 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear subtext, I was interested to see Lancaster University mentioned in the news today as one of 23 universities with an unconditional offer scheme and to also read that this is based in part on references. It reminded me of someone I once knew, who had not only been offered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "letters"","block_context":{"text":"letters","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1230,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/03\/27\/lancaster-ucu-teach-out-selected-reviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":1187,"position":3},"title":"LANCASTER UCU TEACH OUT – SELECTED REVIEWS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 27 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the most inspiring aspects of the UCU strike was, once again, the series of 'Teach Out' sessions in the Gregson Centre. The 15 events at the Gregson, held between Thursday 20 February and Wednesday 11 March, included readings of radical fiction, an alternative guide to the University's finances\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "review"","block_context":{"text":"review","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":483,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/15\/strike-up-your-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":1187,"position":4},"title":"STRIKE UP YOUR LIFE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 15 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In the fortnight since the last edition of subtext, there has been a considerable amount of strike-related activity, both in Lancaster and at the national level. THE LOCAL FLAVOUR The campus picket lines have been busier than ever, with a head count of over 160 on Tuesday this week, along\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":610,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/04\/24\/deep-dive-casualisation-and-precarious-working-practices\/","url_meta":{"origin":1187,"position":5},"title":"DEEP DIVE: CASUALISATION AND PRECARIOUS WORKING PRACTICES","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 24 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"PRECARI-R-US The casualisation and precarious working practices of academic staff are issues that universities are loath to acknowledge, let alone address, and are a far bigger issue than they would admit. However, as universities become more competitive for students, reputation becomes more important, and they are vulnerable to charges of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "special feature"","block_context":{"text":"special feature","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/special-feature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1188,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions\/1188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}