Reinventing the University

So let’s do it. Let’s draw a clear distinction between university and TAFE. Let us declare that the university should be for the dissemination and development of knowledge and that it should leave job-skilling to the TAFEs.

The true university should research and teach the history of jurisprudence, but not the practice of law. It should research and teach the history of art and architecture, but not the skills of the artist or the architect. It should research and teach mathematics, but not the practice of engineering; the science of physics but not industrial chemistry; economics, but not accounting; and history but not social work; biology, but not medicine; botany but not forestry.

Such a university would be an elitist institution whose doors would be wide open to only the most brilliant minds. We have elitist academies of sport - why not of education? Such students would win scholarships or would pay their way as mature artists who wished to study art history, or lawyers who wished to study the history of constitutional law, or as engineers who wished to study some science of new materials.

The maximum roll would be 10,000 students, with a useful mix of undergraduate and postgraduate studies. There would be no quizzes or terms. Just solid review every year or two. The final distinction might be to abandon the degree, which will have been fully commandeered by the TAFEs and junior colleges by then. Suitable letters and “honours” might mean much more.

The TAFEs would have a clear role - they would provide the tertiary training dedicated to enhancing employment and earning capacity. They could tailor courses to fit the needs of all those seeking to better equip themselves in the work force. They would not carry the research overheads of universities and would remain free of political turbulence. Students would pay their fees, win scholarships or take out loans. They could take long degree courses, short diplomas or pressure cooker certificates. Part time and full time students would be properly catered for.

The final ingredient of this reform is to make sure that these TAFE students have some form of liberal education too. The answer is to stop high school at the fifth form and open up Junior Colleges, which take students for two to four year college degrees in the liberal arts and sciences. School uniforms would end at high school and schoolteachers would not have to deal with ten-year-old children and moustached young adults within the same institution. Sixth and seventh formers would be “grown ups” in their Junior Colleges, continuing their compulsory state funded education.

Once in the TAFEs or Universities they would seek their own funding - scholarships, loans or saving. And everyone would know where they were, and why they were there, and why they decided where to go.

Of course this goes against the current fad for a huge percentage of the population to have a university qualification - 30 per cent is a frequent target. We are told that if we fall short of some international statistic then we are doomed to exclusion from the knowledge economy.

In the meantime Switzerland seems to do quite well. Only about 12 per cent of young Swiss are at universities - the rest are in vocational training. It must save the Swiss taxpayers one hell of a lot of money.