La Universitat de Hull s’està plantejant
no acceptar nous estudiants de filosofia el 2019 perquè no consideren que sigui
rentable ni pels seus estudiants ni pels seus benefactors. El “esto pa’ qué sirve”
o “con eso se gana pasta?” s’estan imposant cada cop més.
A casa nostra tenim els punts de vista divergents d’en
Jordi Llovet, que va abandonar la Universitat, i de l’ex-conseller de salut – i
per tant Honorable- Boi Ruiz format a EADA: “Si vol estudiar filologia clàssica
per plaer, s'ho pagarà vostè". "L'Estat ha de facilitar les coses a
qui vulgui estudiar per raons de mercat."
If universities
sacrifice philosophy on the altar of profit, what’s next?
Hull says the subject doesn’t meet the needs of
‘business partners’. Try telling that to Thales of Miletus
Julian Baggini
Fri 21 Dec 2018 09.00 GMT Last modified on Fri
21 Dec 2018 10.34 GMT
You might think that a university philosophy
department facing closure in Hull is of as much interest to the average person
as the shutting of a butcher’s in Wolverhampton is to a vegetarian in Totnes.
There are almost as many universities as high streets now, and for every
closure here there’s an opening somewhere else.
But the events unfolding on Humberside are
symptomatic of a deep malaise affecting not just universities but the wider
culture. The crude pursuit of what is “practical”, “efficient” or “useful” is
threatening everything of value that isn’t evidently profitable.
Philosophy has been taught at Hull ever since
the University opened in 1928. The department has no problem with recruitment
and has a good faculty. Because humanities courses are so cheap to teach and
student fees so high, there is no conceivable way it could be losing money. In
a letter to colleagues, Kathleen Lennon, emeritus professor of philosophy,
insisted: “Philosophy at Hull is financially viable – providing a healthy
return for the university.”
So why is the university not accepting any more
joint honours students and publicly entertaining the possibility “that we will
not be recruiting new students” in 2019? A statement by Jeanette Strachan, the
university’s registrar, to the local newspaper suggests some worrying answers.
Strachan said the university sought to offer students “a high-quality academic
experience and ensure that their qualification holds value over time”.
The word that screams out of that sentence is
“value”. The implication seems to be that a philosophy degree does not provide
a sufficient financial return for those who “invest” in it. This impression is
reinforced by Strachan’s statement that the university “meets the needs of our
students, research and business partners”. The inclusion of that third party
would baffle the thousands of people who have graduated with philosophy degrees
without ever catching a sniff of a “business partner”, let alone receiving any
help from one.
(…)
The threat at Hull reflects a lamentable shift
in education towards precisely this functional view of what universities are
for. But it also reflects a crudely utilitarian worldview that infects much,
much more. You see it manifest whenever arts funding is under threat or when
the evident inability of GDP growth to capture what most matters fails to
translate to concrete steps to replace it with better metrics. That’s why
Hull’s fate is all our fates. Today, they’re coming for philosophy. Tomorrow,
they’ll come for something else that isn’t designed to turn a profit.
Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd.
VOCABULARY
Malaise: Disease, illness,…
Joint honours: An
honours university degree in which a student studies two separate subjects, as
opposed to a single subject: Dr Ellis
holds a first class joint honours degree in Russian and German from the
University of Bristol.
Statement: Declaration, speech.
Baffle: If something baffles
you, you cannot understand it or explain it. An apple tree producing square fruit is baffling experts. Not in
this case: Also called: baffle board, baffle plate: A plate or mechanical
device designed to restrain or regulate the flow of a fluid, the emission of
light or sound, or the distribution of sound, esp in a loudspeaker or
microphone
Sniff of: If you get a sniff of
something, you learn or guess that it might be happening or might be near.
Let alone: “Y mucho menos”
Sought-after: Something
that is sought-after is in great demand, usually because it is rare or of very
good quality.
Bean-counters: You can
describe people such as accountants and business managers as bean counters if
you disapprove of them because you think they are only interested in money.
Fed up: If you are fed up, you
are unhappy, bored, or tired of something, especially something that you have
been experiencing for a long time: He had
become fed up with city life. [+ with] I'm just fed up and I don't know what to
do. To be upset.
Bumper olive harvest: “abundante cosecha de aceitunas”
Killing: In this case it refers
to a financial success.
Pull off: If you pull off something
very difficult, you succeed in achieving it.
Stunt: A stunt is something
interesting that is done in order to attract attention and get publicity for
the person or company responsible for it.
Flaw: Fault, mistake.
Hold | held | held: In this
case, to consider. Other senses: When you hold something, you carry or support
it, using your hands or your arms; “deparar”: You will never know what life holds for you.
Heeding: Following
Yields: Incomes
Dumber: If you call a person
dumb, you mean that they are stupid or foolish.
Pleading: The act of presenting a
case in court, as by a lawyer on behalf of his or her client. (“Predicamento”, “aplica”)
Cringe: If you cringe at
something, you feel embarrassed or disgusted, and perhaps show this feeling in
your expression or by making a slight movement.
Is not worth: “No
merece la pena”
Churning out: To
churn out something means to produce large quantities of it very quickly.
GDP: In economics, a country's GDP
is the total value of goods and services produced within a country in a year,
not including its income from investments in other countries. GDP is an
abbreviation for 'gross domestic product'.
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