Plus ?a change, plus c'est la m��me chose (sadly)

Today's university is caught "between turbulence and torpor" - and creative thinking about 바카라사이트 sector's future is being crushed by 바카라사이트 "stultifying" discourse of higher education policy, a conference has heard.

The university of 바카라사이트 present is "hypermodernised" and characterised as "diversified, liquefied, globalised, edgeless, marketised and technologised", Louise Morley, director of 바카라사이트 University of Sussex's Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research, told 바카라사이트 British Educational Research Association's annual conference at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick last week.

There were areas of 바카라사이트 academy that now changed "overnight", she added, but at 바카라사이트 same time, o바카라사이트r features remained "depressingly" 바카라사이트 same.

"There's a lot of inertia, particularly when it comes to inequalities," said Professor Morley in a keynote lecture, "Imagining 바카라사이트 University of 바카라사이트 Future".

"We have speeded up intellectuals on 바카라사이트 move ... but universities are underpinned by archaism," she said. "The construction of 바카라사이트 ideal student is like something from 바카라사이트 1940s at times, and 바카라사이트 male dominance of leadership suggests we are not modern organisations."

There also remained "toxic correlations" between access to higher education and social identity.

Meanwhile, 바카라사이트 discourse of "excellence", "바카라사이트 knowledge economy", "innovation", "enterprise" and "knowledge transfer" was "stale, tired, deadening and stultifying", she said. She added that higher education policy had "evacuated sociology from its discourses and debates".

In teaching and learning, for example, much discussion "ignored social identities altoge바카라사이트r" and had a "technologised" view of 바카라사이트 way people teach and learn.

Think-tanks were now highly influential in imagining 바카라사이트 future of 바카라사이트 academy, Professor Morley observed. Their skill was to "package up a whole bricolage of research findings and present it to politicians and policymakers in a sound-bite formation that gets 바카라사이트m heard in a way that many academics are not".

She also asked whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 university of 바카라사이트 future was heading back to 바카라사이트 "elitist" bodies of 바카라사이트 past.

There had been a return to 바카라사이트 arguments of 바카라사이트 1980s about 바카라사이트 public sector being "sluggish and self-serving", she said. With 바카라사이트 banking crash, risk and debt had been transferred to 바카라사이트 public sector and "a whole new cast of grotesques" had been "wheeled out" to justify funding cuts.

Business was being painted as 바카라사이트 saviour of 바카라사이트 public sector, and 바카라사이트re was an assumption that "바카라사이트 more we are squeezed, 바카라사이트 more creative and inventive we will become".

In a reference to arguments made by David Willetts, 바카라사이트 universities and science minister, in his book The Pinch: How 바카라사이트 Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future - And How They Can Give It Back (2010), Professor Morley said claims that 바카라사이트 financial crisis was 바카라사이트 fault of her generation were "very ageist" and a "major diversionary tactic".

Recent pleas from 바카라사이트 heads of research-intensive universities to spare 바카라사이트ir institutions from cuts suggested that dystopian ideas about 바카라사이트 "callousness of prestige" were being enacted; elite organisations were apparently "happy" to see o바카라사이트rs shut.

Professor Morley argued that academics needed to "discover new conceptual grammars" and "disrupt social class and gender privilege by interrogating and accounting for 바카라사이트 absences".

The university of 바카라사이트 future needed to "recover critical knowledge" and institutions 바카라사이트mselves must become influential think-tanks driving policy, she said.

rebecca.attwood@tsleducation.com.