Madam, - The call for debate from Dr Hugh Brady and Dr John Hegarty on the crisis facing the third level sector is welcome (Opinion & Analysis, March 18th). They provide us with a clear insight into the current state of underfunding and its impact on the educational experience, particularly at undergraduate level.
Their focus on the fiscal should not, however, divert attention from other factors that are currently remaking the higher education landscape. Indeed, the "quiet revolution" they have overseen has had far-reaching implications for the future of higher education in Ireland.
The restructuring of the third level sector appears to be driven primarily by the desire to introduce a market rationale to the academy. This language of the market has replaced issues such as academic rigour and pedagogical rationale at the top of school and department agendas across the country. Judging from my discussions with third-level colleagues, it is not unusual in this "world class" system to portray those who question the new doctrine as being truculent, unwilling to embrace change or (most damning from the zealot's perspective) failing to grasp the "reality" of the current market/education landscape.
Meaningful discourses on issues such as the relevance of course content, the cohesion of individual degree programmes, the dilution of the student experience and the potential impact of proposed changes on academic standards are becoming increasingly rare. Worryingly, the forces currently driving the third-level sector have become so entrenched that it appears many managers at all levels are either afraid or unwilling to raise their voices in opposition.
The reality of life inside our third-level institutions is that discussions on costing and structure have largely replaced discourses on the pursuit of knowledge. The sacred time and spaces that allowed students and staff to reflect, engage and grow together are being gradually excised in order to make way for a leaner, more-cost effective model where genericism is the holy grail of those holding the purse strings. The serious attempts currently under way to lose specific niche (often unique) subject areas and introduce a "one-size-fits-all" model (under the guise of increased choice for the student) will inevitably lead to a shallower knowledge pool in the years ahead. As in so many other areas of Irish life, the third-level sector is bearing witness to the devaluation and destruction of anything whose value is unquantifiable. We should worry that such events are becoming commonplace in so many aspects of our society.
Indeed, impoverishment should be understood in terms other than the purely fiscal. As Dr Sean Barrett pointed out in his letter of March 19th, the very areas which will prove crucial in the development of a successful multicultural society - the arts, humanities, social sciences, etc - are those most exposed to the chill wind of a system that values measurable outputs above critical engagement and reflection.
It is worth remembering warning by the great German thinker Walter Benjamin that the pursuit of progress can lead to us moving through "empty time", oblivious to the possibilities that exist in the present. By looking forward to our place at the top table in "the knowledge economy", we are in grave danger of allowing years of effort and craft in the lecture theatre to be lost forever. Ireland will be all the poorer for it. - Yours, etc,
RICHARD FITZSIMONS, School of Media, DIT, Aungier Street, Dublin, 2.