Dear Editor,
I found
Tony Aspromourgos’ contribution “The managerialist university: an economic
interpretation” (AUR 54(2) 44-49) both perceptive and valuable. However, I
think it comes to an overly ‘optimistic’ conclusion about the lack of
competition between Australian universities facilitating a continuing decline
in standards.
This is
due to a premise I consider to be one of the symptoms of managerialism, the
assumption that university students are ‘consumers’ of a ‘product’ provided by
universities.
While
this is one basis from which to make an economic analysis of the higher
education market, an alternative economic conception is one in which students
are not the consumers, but are themselves the product. It then becomes evident
that the majority of Australian universities are overwhelmingly dependent on a
single customer, the Commonwealth Government, which funds the sector in order
to produce skilled citizens for the nation’s requirements.
Ultimately
the actions of this dominant customer will depend on all of us, acting
collectively through our elected representatives. In aggregate we are
relatively well-informed and cost conscious. Just as if we were buying beer, we
taxpayers will seek to buy the best product at the best price for each
application of higher education for which we see a collective need. If the
Australian product becomes uncompetitive in terms of cost or quality, this
means we will buy the imported product.
A
hundred years ago, we imported most of our professionals, and sent most of our
bright researchers overseas to carry out their research. We still do this to a
large extent today. As a relatively small country remote from the world’s main
centres of economic and intellectual activity, this was (and is) a perfectly
rational course of action.
As a
nation we might well decide that it would be cheaper to train our professionals
overseas; that we would be better off just using the results of research carried
out overseas rather than funding it ourselves; and that we could achieve mass
tertiary education most efficiently through overseas-based online institutions.
I think a cost-benefit analysis based purely on economic arguments would
support this decision. And if the behavior of universities has for a generation
actively undercut the non-economic arguments for their existence, this decision
will be nigh-impossible to challenge.
Australian
universities do not form a closed system which can gracefully decline until
graduates see no relative benefit in obtaining a degree. The services we
provide to the nation are part of a competitive globalised economy. They can be
sourced elsewhere. Thus, if we continue along our current path, it is entirely
possible that the managerialist mindset will see the entire Australian higher
education sector ‘managed’ into irrelevance.
Yours Sincerely,
Chris Fellows
Yours Sincerely,
Chris Fellows
