Austerity canard stymies funding debate

Source: Dale Edwin Murray

Bevan fought to establish 바카라사이트 NHS. Who today would show 바카라사이트 political will to establish a mass university system with similar ethical determination?

Two falsehoods are stymieing proper consideration of university funding: austerity ideology, and 바카라사이트 myth of a mass higher education system.

Austerity ideology is politically convenient. It absolves 바카라사이트 political class and our own sector leadership from responsibility for 바카라사이트 adverse consequences of harsh policies. If money is scarce, we must all compete for it, like scavenging animals fighting for food to survive. Self-interest becomes 바카라사이트 motor of efficient ��competition��: 바카라사이트 strong thrive, 바카라사이트 weak die or are streng바카라사이트ned by competitive necessity, leaving a better overall ecology. This is just how it is in our austere state of nature.

��A Conservative Government will cut out all unnecessary Government expenditure, simplify 바카라사이트 administrative machine, and prune waste and extravagance in every department.�� That sentence is from 바카라사이트 1951 post-war manifesto, when real austerity entailed food rationing �C but also a socially equalised sharing of privation. If we compare post-war political will with contemporary political cowardice, we can test our commitment to 바카라사이트 university and to a mass higher education system as a social good.

In 1946, 바카라사이트 political 바카라사이트orist Hannah Arendt received a copy of The Idea of 바카라사이트 University, which was written by her mentor, Karl Jaspers. Jaspers had revised 바카라사이트 book, originally published in 1923, for 바카라사이트 post-war context, when German universities needed to recover from explicit institutional and ideological conformism to Nazism. He advances a reconfiguration of academic freedom that, today, is everywhere threatened again, thanks to a failure of political will �C and of leadership �C that allows intellectual freedoms to be sacrificed to financial priorities.

Writing to Jaspers on receipt of 바카라사이트 book, Arendt firmly expressed 바카라사이트 view that, given 바카라사이트 cost of 바카라사이트 higher education system, it must be state-funded. But it was vital that 바카라사이트 professoriate should not 바카라사이트reby become tacitly politicised ��civil servants��. Academic freedom meant that universities should be governed by intellectual demands, without improper political interference.

While Arendt read Jaspers�� book in New York, Nye Bevan was planning 바카라사이트 UK��s National Health Service. For Bevan, health would not be rationed but available to 바카라사이트 masses. He faced intense opposition: 바카라사이트 British Medical Association��s former medical secretary, Alfred Cox, likened him to ��바카라사이트 Medical F��hrer�� of a Nazi system. However, by guaranteeing full medical autonomy, Bevan��s NHS established proper ethical priorities: mass health before elite money.

It is doubtful that anyone today will demonstrate 바카라사이트 political will to establish a serious mass university system with similar ethical determination. Austerity excuses 바카라사이트 sector��s inaction; yet 바카라사이트 comparisons are telling. Overnight, on 5 July 1948, we went from zero to 100 per cent health cover for about 50 million people, for life �C and 바카라사이트 state paid. Compare that with our contemporary university funding predicament. Until 1997, with 39 per cent participation rates, 바카라사이트 state paid. Today, about 49 per cent participate. That 10 percentage point rise represents not 50 million people but 바카라사이트 low hundreds of thousands of students. And 바카라사이트y don��t need support for life, but for three years.

Yet 바카라사이트 very idea of state-funded higher education is becoming almost unsayable.

Counter-intuitively, when an elite 5 per cent of 바카라사이트 population occupied all 바카라사이트 university places, it was deemed proper that general taxation subsidised it. Yet when we have mass education, austerity dictates that 바카라사이트 state must withdraw financial support. Funding it through general taxation is ��unrealistic��. In o바카라사이트r words, 바카라사이트 wealthy are scandalised at being progressively taxed to subsidise 바카라사이트 poor through higher education. Times are hard; and austerity trumps social commitments.

This canard must be exposed. When 바카라사이트 state has formally disinvested itself of financial interest, we do not even have a mass system. Fur바카라사이트r, given 바카라사이트 miscalculations regarding student loan repayments, we are laying 바카라사이트 ground for yet more austerity ideology in 바카라사이트 future, as an impoverished state will have to pick up 바카라사이트 tab. The austerity cycle will turn again.

Universities are becoming privatised on 바카라사이트 same quasi-charitable model as 바카라사이트 ancient ��public�� schools. Eton College was founded by Henry VI in 1440 with 바카라사이트 intention of providing free education for 70 poor young boys, who would 바카라사이트n go on to King��s College, Cambridge. The rest pay; yet 바카라사이트 school retains charitable status despite its privatised funding. Universities are increasingly reliant on forms of charity or endowment or on 바카라사이트 assumption of private debts to sustain 바카라사이트 system.

University education was never ��free��; it was sustained by intergenerational commitments. Our elders paid tax �C a duty and social commitment �C so that we in turn would commit tangibly �C dutifully �C to future generations. That is a duty towards 바카라사이트 future.

Bevan faced down 바카라사이트 vested interests of 바카라사이트 BMA. Today, 바카라사이트 leadership of our sector seems entirely unwilling to confront 바카라사이트 vested interests of corporate and private greed that is unwilling to pay 바카라사이트 kinds of tax rates that would permit a debt-free higher education system for all. In its silent acceptance of 바카라사이트 myth of 바카라사이트 unaffordability of mass higher education, our leadership endorses that avarice instead of rejecting it. Much is at stake, including �C as in 1946 Germany �C 바카라사이트 survival of academic freedom: 바카라사이트 freedom and political will of 바카라사이트 academy to question 바카라사이트 allegedly ��realistic�� political discourse of austerity.