Ideias de Universidade(s)

Leituras sobre a ideia de Universidade. Conceitos em confronto, em competição, ou em sobreposição. Modelo Intelectual. De Gestão. Consumista. Abordagens de acordo com um outor modo de encarar o ensino superior; muitas vezes sem suficiente reflexão; sem suficiente discussão. Faz falta entre nós: discutir a Universidade.

"We suggest that (...) higher education in the United Kingdom is currently a site of contestation between three distinct paradigms: the intellectual model, the managerial model and the consumerist model.

The intellectual model is the paradigm of academics (...). According to such a model, the university is not a business, nor is it a feeder to the marketplace, but is, rather a space of intellectual engagement, in which the chief values are the inherent value of knowledge, free and critical thinking, diversification and disciplinary integrity, and a passion for scholarship and research.

The managerial model is the paradigm of government and policymakers, funding and regulatory bodies, and in most cases university management. Its language is a language of performance indicators and league tables, quality assurance processes and their impact on the curriculum, the standardisation of practices and the rhetoric of employability, and continual restructuring.

The consumerist model is the paradigm of students and parents, employers, the media, and often also publishers. It articulates an obsession with the National Student Survey and the concept of ‘student satisfaction’. The rhetoric of employability and skills is found here as well, but in the form of a market-driven obsession with vocationalism. In the consumerist language, the most important indicator of quality is value for money, indicative of the process of commodification. The student-as-consumer is a consummate rights bearer in the tradition of possessive individualism, a consequence of which is the ‘culture of appeals’ that has recently developed in the sector."

Excertos de Darren O’Byrne & Christopher Bond (2014) Back to the future: the idea of a university revisited, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 36:6, 571-584.