AUT: RE: Universities under siege, etc...

[".: s0metim3s :." <s0metim3s@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thaigo:

: I fundamentally agree with you, except
: that I do think that the exceptional
: status of the university, when
: approached aggressively, can be a threat to
: the system of commodification.

Maybe.  But this requires a level of irony and
reflection which one abandons precisely the moment
one beleives in one's own distinction or that of
the university.  The occassions when I've seen
exceptionality approached aggressively is in terms
of asserting the virtues of a meritocratic
machinery.  For those who are inside the
university, this might be well and dandy, a pat on
the back as it were; but it's politically
stupefying.

I can't count the number of times apparently
critical academics have bemoaned the presence of
'rich asian' students in Australian universities,
while not pausing even for a moment to ponder the
fact that the most relevant criteria here is
'rich' -- that money and stratification have
always been the defining factor in universities
and degrees. This seems to me the everyday
manifestation of insisting on the exceptionality
of the university in the present context.


Angela
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