The End of a University

The End of a University

From Bildung and ruins to nonsense

Complicated Conversation

A Book Series of Curriculum Studies

William F. Pinar

Series Editor

Volume 65

To Maia and Ana

Contents

1. Preface

2. Introduction

3. Chapter 1. Historical Background

4. Chapter 2. Education

5. Chapter 3. Research

6. Chapter 4. Modern University

7. Chapter 5. Case Study: Teaching and Research in Georgia

8. Chapter 6. Human Happiness

9. Chapter 7. Conclusions

10. Postscript

11. Index

Preface

The content for a book of essays on education and research at the modern university may be composed using different approaches. The first and most frequent approach should be an attempt to cover the basic ways of organizing education as a process and as a product in and for the contemporary world. From this perspective, the task seems quite diverse and complex. On the one hand, different cultures have different expectations for educational policies, and on the other hand, the traditions of organizing educational systems also differ. Naturally, expectations arise from traditions, but the lack of certain traditions may easily result in unrealized expectations. Today, the demand for modern education, which may be different from traditional education, is high. Students from developing countries move to more developed ones to receive education, and sometimes to simply purchase a diploma. The latter is especially evident and frequently observable in some developing countries that offer easy ways to graduate. In this case, education is converted into a business, losing its professional and ethical dimensions, and is characterized by low-quality, ill-structured programs, and the absence of evidence-based research at all levels of university studies (bachelor’s, master’s, PhD). Marketization of higher education is observable.¹

Another approach to composing content can be the description and analysis of modern technical possibilities that find a way into both teaching and research. E-learning, as well as access to different scientific databases, provide novel and quite attractive instruments for students, possibilities that can be beneficial from economical and communicational perspectives. Simultaneously, the rapid dissemination of new research data will in turn deepen learning that can be pursued without additional physical and financial difficulties. This approach to the content would be not only modern but also diverse and informative, drawing a distinction between the “pursuit of learning” and the “acquisition of information.”²

Equally interesting could be the evaluation of the role of the ethical component in teaching and research, which can also form an axis for the content of the present book. Ethics from different perspectives: ethics in teaching (why, what, and how we teach), ethics in research (scientific misconduct), and ethics as an instrument for the formation of modern citizens (civic responsibility).

All three approaches make it possible to imagine a book of essays on university education and research that has a broad scope and is not limited to scholastic and traditional understanding of the topic. Additionally, critical moments experienced by human society may also be discussed, such as epidemics and pandemics,³ giving space to reflect on the organization of medical services and respect for basic human rights during humanitarian catastrophes.

The basis of all the mentioned approaches is the three-dimensional understanding of a scientific idea, according to which a) science and opinion are indistinguishable, b) science is understood as an institution (including pedagogical and research perspectives), and c) science is a form of life.⁴ Accepting all three characteristics and placing them at the center of the discussion makes understandable the role of education and research in the development of modern societies.

Keeping in mind all the aforementioned, we have decided to use all three approaches for our book. In it, we shall discuss different traditions of organizing educational systems; briefly overview the role and innovative methods of prominent philosophers of education, whose ideas strongly determined the development of the field in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and continue to have an important impact on it today. Naturally, there are countries with more developed educational traditions, and there are others where education was not always at the forefront of social life. At the same time, many countries today offer educational services that form the international educational market and frequently determine the formation of new perceptions of educational policies. All these will be discussed from the practical, professional perspectives of the authors of this book, who collectively have more than twenty years of active teaching and research experience.

We shall also write about the role of technical development in education. From this point of view, the syntagmatic expression “philosophy of education” acquires another, probably novel, meaning. Here “philosophy” means modern ways of understanding the nature of education, linking it with market expectations. How technical progress can facilitate and sometimes ease education, both as a process and as a product, will be discussed here. It will be discovered that from educational perspectives, technical progress may be not only positive but also quite negative, leading to the formation of some perverse educational behavior, such as intentionally missing lectures by lecturers and almost totalitarian control of lecturers by university administration. The lack of mutual trust and respect between academic and administrative staff will deteriorate teaching and leave no room for university research, transforming the latter into a sham and a grand illusion.

We also dedicate a special section to the role of public health in university research. Being a special dimension that unites social and biomedical sciences and informs the health arena, public health offers contemporary insights for planning and implementing research procedures and analyzing research data. As Jürgen Mittelstrass has noted, “certain problems cannot be captured by a single discipline,” especially in cases of environment, energy, and health.⁵ If we aim to discover the place and role of modern education and research possibilities in the framework of the future well-being of human society, a public health research perspective could be a useful dimension for understanding the role of modern universities in our lives. Hence our interest in discussing its possibilities for building a healthy and informed society.

All the analysis offered in the book is not of a mere theoretical character. Rather, we consider this book to be a kind of case study, as in Chapter 5 we discuss the teaching and research peculiarities observed by us in Georgian universities. Our main intention for writing and including this chapter was to offer a case study of the concrete difficulties that Georgian universities face today and that may be, more or less, observable at other universities in distinct parts of the world.

Chapter 6 describes the notion of human happiness from historical perspective; it also tries to find the role of happiness in the building and managing of modern universities, along with the achieving the main goal of social self-realization.

All the analyzed difficulties will lead to the ethical corruption of modern universities; nobody should be responsible for anything, and teaching will be transformed from a highly ethical act into a mere financial and business operation. Lack of respect and understanding of the basic challenges in the framework of modern educational systems will lead to the loss of the key idea regarding education—opening doors for multiple individual possibilities and the formation of the responsible citizen. As Bill Readings noted, “Such is the situation of the posthistorical University, the University without an idea”⁶—and we are very much afraid that modern universities may continue their way from Bildung⁷ and ruins⁸ to nonsense.⁹

Vladimer Luarsabishvili, Maia Kiladze

Tbilisi, February 27, 2024