Professor Rajah Rasiah FEA Universiti Malaya, chairperson, summarising Professor Maureen McKelvey, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Public Lecture this morning ...
I was invited to a public lecture at the Faculty of Economics & Administration (FEA) Universiti Malaya this morning at 10 am. A great priviledge indeed to meet Professor Maureen McKelvey, Professor of Industrial Management and Dean of the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in person and to listen to her about the new book she had edited, which will be published in February 2009. Its called 'Learning to Compete in European Universities: from social institution to knowledge business'. The crux of her book is about why european universities are changing and learning to compete. Our local universities, both public and private, can certainly pick some relevant tips and strategies these european universities have adopted. Or at least understand why all these (change, competition) need to take place. Must it take place? I ask. Must they be pressured by market demand or put it in another way, must universities be market-driven? Yes and no, perhaps... haha.. always paradoxical and ahem...oxymoronic right? Sorry folks but my stand has always been similar to those echoed by professor William Taylor former professor of education and vice chancellor of the University of Hull, where parallels are drawn between universities and commercial or industrial enterprises. Such parallels have a number of defects and dangers. They fail to bring out the real and essential differences between educational considerations and market considerations. Which is not to say that there is nothing in common between running an industrial enterprise and running a university (hehe). It fails to take into account of certain characteristics of the values inherent in a market structure as compared to those characteristics of educational structures, the point had also been well made by Jules Henry. Prof Maureen pulled together a great list of contributors and organised it into four themes: emergent strategies; diversification and specialization; rethinking university-industry relations; and reflections. My thinking may have been outdated or archaic (evil wink) or have been too influenced by the olde school hehe. I did get a chance to share my opinion at this morning's lecture and my candid remarks from the other side of the table. Problem is, while I give my corporate overview, I am most often trapped within my pseudo-academia mindset...because of my occasional adjunct role teaching MBA students! hahaha. Also at the lecture was Kamaruding Abdul Somad, PhD (Prof Maureen's colleague at the University of Gothenburg), Assoc prof Dr Nik Rosnah, Head department of Administrative Studies and Politics, FEA UM, and Assoc Prof Dr Chia of the Inst of Postgrad Studies & Research Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). I wished more people at the helm of our local universities were there this morning to listen to her...hmmm
3 comments:
Dear Khaeruddin
Your note sums up one of the obvious problems confronting Malaysian universities - the great capacity to look for solutions from 'puddles of water known to have no fish'.
I agree with you that the captains of Malaysian universities should have attended Maureen's talk.
Hi, this is me again AI,Anonymously Identifiable. Why did our 'captains' of Malaysian universities not turn up? Because this was totally irrelevant to them. Our universities do not have 'educational considerations' nor are they 'market driven'. There are other considerations or driving forces that need to be catered to. Whatever competitivenes or position our universities have achieved have been 'inspite of' and not 'because of'. So our 'captains' are busy being elsewhere where they concentrate on what they have to do for the actual driving forces than on what is imperative to the long term well-being of the highest educational institutions of the country.
sowee AI, for the rather late response. thank you for visiting and your comments. i guess universities the world over have their own idiosyncracies.The British Universities at some point in history, learnt that they should leave the dons & scholars where they are comfortable at. Some made the mistake of making true blue professors VCs and end up with the fellow doing what he loves most...supervising PhDs and reviewing thesis hahaha! So much so the real business of the VC which is university development and the search for funding, is neglected. While some others (wink) experimented with putting bureaucrats or corporate animals to run universities and disorientating the 'high and mighty' ivory tower scholars...hahaha.. I guess, with due respect to VCs some of whom are also my friends, they too need to balance between the notion of academic freedom and pursuits with political realities of the day... (evil wink) heheh.
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