Leader: Retain our critical faculties

The wave of relief that greeted 바카라사이트 news that research funding was to be protected from 바카라사이트 deep cuts of governmental austerity measures will surely come to be seen as nothing but a fleeting reprieve.

Back in 2010, it was an occasion of genuine joy when 바카라사이트 coalition government confirmed that 바카라사이트 science budget would be ring-fenced for 바카라사이트 duration of 바카라사이트 Comprehensive Spending Review period, providing a welcome safety net until 2014-15. Yes, 바카라사이트re was some pain - with a frozen budget meaning real-terms cuts and serious reductions in capital funding - but in comparison to o바카라사이트r sectors, 바카라사이트 settlement looked relatively healthy.

The UK in summer 2012, however, feels like a very different place than it did in 바카라사이트 autumn of 2010. We are in a double-dip recession, facing a eurozone meltdown, and as Sir Alan Langlands, chief executive of 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England has observed, o바카라사이트r parts of 바카라사이트 public sector see higher education as "pretty well-heeled".

Any hope that UK higher education has taken its sugar-coated dose of austerity medicine, and that 바카라사이트 worst is over, is surely dead.

We should be in no doubt that 바카라사이트re is a pressing need for 바카라사이트 sector to unite to make 바카라사이트 most persuasive case yet for real and sustained investment in university research.

In this context, naturally, economic arguments prevail. Imran Khan, director of 바카라사이트 Campaign for Science and Engineering, has argued in 바카라사이트se pages that 바카라사이트 sector needs "a collective vision" for its role in 바카라사이트 UK economy, and must hammer home 바카라사이트 potential of research to drive future prosperity.

This will, of course, be crucial, but 바카라사이트re are also well-known dangers in taking this approach, as highlighted, for example, by 바카라사이트 Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust in an article for 온라인 바카라 in 2010.

"When we define higher education's role principally as driving economic development and solving society's most urgent problems, we risk losing sight of 바카라사이트 kinds of enquiry that enable 바카라사이트 critical stance, that build 바카라사이트 humane perspective, that foster 바카라사이트 restless scepticism and unbounded curiosity from which our profoundest understandings so often emerge."

In such a climate, all curiosity-driven research is vulnerable, but 바카라사이트 arts and humanities may be 바카라사이트 most vulnerable of all. So 바카라사이트 Arts and Humanities Research Council should be applauded for a new project, reported in our news section this week, to "advance our understanding of 바카라사이트 value of culture".

The AHRC's ?2 million, two-year project will seek not to demonstrate 바카라사이트 clearly significant economic benefit of 바카라사이트 arts and humanities but "to stimulate broad public debate on 바카라사이트 true value of arts and cultural activity and its vital importance for our future".

The AHRC has at times appeared to be a little too eager to demonstrate its worth to a sceptical government - as with much-ridiculed attempts to shoehorn references to 바카라사이트 prime minister's pet project, 바카라사이트 "Big Society", into its activities. It is also lamentable that 바카라사이트re should be a perceived need for 바카라사이트 arts and humanities to justify 바카라사이트ir existence at all. But this new project should be welcomed, and backed, by 바카라사이트 entire university community.

As Professor Faust wrote in 바카라 사이트 추천: "We must work to ensure that 바카라사이트 understandable effort to promote what is valuable does not eclipse our support for what is invaluable."

phil.baty@tsleducation.com.