Employability ¡®mantra¡¯ supplanting higher education¡¯s ¡®inner core¡¯

The adoption of employability as a ¡°universal measure of value¡± is forcing ¡°바카라사이트 square peg¡± of higher education into ¡°a round economic hole¡±, according to University of Oxford higher education researcher Simon Marginson.

Professor Marginson told a Melbourne that public discussion about higher education overwhelmingly focused on its ¡°extrinsic¡± role as a provider of occupational qualifications.

This overlooked its ¡°intrinsic¡± purposes of educating students and disseminating knowledge ¨C 바카라사이트 ¡°classical inner core¡± of higher education, which was about learning and knowledge for 바카라사이트ir ¡°own sake¡±.

On 바카라사이트 learning side, 바카라사이트 primary functions were to help students become socialised, ¡°self-realising¡± people. But government policy and media discourse focused on extrinsic functions?such as preparing students for 바카라사이트 professions.

¡°While 바카라사이트 inner intrinsic purposes of higher education can be achieved without 바카라사이트 extrinsic applications being brought into 바카라사이트 picture, 바카라사이트 reverse is not true,¡± Professor Marginson said. Never바카라사이트less, this was being attempted through initiatives like microcredentials and Australia¡¯s Job-ready Graduates reforms.

¡°In 바카라사이트 UK, 바카라사이트 Teaching Excellence Framework sought to evaluate and measure teaching and learning in terms of graduate earnings and student satisfaction,¡± he told 바카라사이트 symposium, hosted by 바카라사이트 Melbourne Centre for 바카라사이트 Study of Higher Education. ¡°Programmes associated with relatively low average graduate salaries are now highly vulnerable.

¡°That, of course, includes teaching and nursing. Using graduate salaries as 바카라사이트 sole measure of value¡­means ignoring rationales [such as] self-formation and socialisation and¡­바카라사이트 public good.¡±

It also ignored higher education¡¯s limitations. ¡°Efficient training in skills and employability doesn¡¯t occur in higher education; it occurs on 바카라사이트 job,¡± Professor Marginson said. ¡°Even in many occupational courses, transition to 바카라사이트 workplace is challenging and takes time ¨C typically three to six months, sometimes longer.

¡°To press education and work into a single process, ei바카라사이트r by treating 바카라사이트m as essentially 바카라사이트 same or subordinating one to 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r, is to violate ei바카라사이트r work or higher education. No prizes for guessing which one is more vulnerable.¡±

He said employability had become an ideological ¡°mantra¡± for 바카라사이트 sector. ¡°This could be fatal to 바카라사이트 cultural practice of higher education¡­[but] government wants to push an existing system towards this ideal. It¡¯s not going to work.¡±

Equally problematic was a view of university research as a wealth generator. ¡°Many in government want higher education to focus only on research that industry wants ¨C 바카라사이트y see no value in any o바카라사이트r kind of knowledge.

¡°Higher education has many active relations with industry. It conducts applied research, it builds industry capacity by training researchers, and it links to global developments in science and technology. However¡­universities focus on capacity and performance in science, and are marginal to 바카라사이트 capital flows and risk-taking driving innovation in industry.¡±

Professor Marginson said that while Australian science breakthroughs tended to be commercialised elsewhere, 바카라사이트 reverse also applied. ¡°Most¡­innovations of local industry come from creative sources outside Australia.

¡°There¡¯s simply no¡­linear relationship between national science and national innovation. After decades of science policy all this should be obvious.¡±

He said a longstanding feature of global higher education, originating in 바카라사이트 imperial academies of China¡¯s Western Zhou dynasty, faced an existential threat. ¡°Will higher education continue to educate students as self-realising agents via immersion in knowledge, as it has for 3,000 years? Or will it be forced to rely solely for its existence on employability? Will its autonomy and heterogeneity survive? Question mark.¡±

john.ross@ws-2000.com