Critical Analysis: Comparison of Arguments
The crisis affecting universities is a subject of earnest debate among academics and education theorists, as also social science researchers. Two outstanding articles on this subject were authored in 2012, one by Jeffrey J. Williams, “Deconstructing Academe: The Birth of Critical University Studies,” and the other by Hanke and Hearn, “Introduction: Out of the Ruins, the University to Come.” In outlook and response both are alike, but they differ in critical style and treatment. Both sets of authors agree that the “new global university,” which panders to the needs of global finance and neoliberalism, is a far cry from the traditional or humanistic ideal of the university. Its moral decline is deplorable, and it is moving forward in time in the backward direction of stagnation. Education is sacrificed to monetary gain. As Williams points out, there is a sad shift of focus from “academic control” to “managerial control.” Hanke and Hearn stress on the sidestepping of the issues of identity and subject position in the rage for neoliberalism, thereby creating human rights violations in the community. This then is an overview of the standpoints of the two sets of authors.
Hanke and Hearn
Hanke and Hearn have a more or less documentary approach and tend to view it more statistically and textually. They sum up their references with adequate reflections, mostly on the ethical plane. Their focus is mainly on the financial siege of neoliberalism than on the impact on faculty and curricula. They quote the famous critic and philosopher of the twentieth-century, Jacques Derrida, who says that it is “impossible to dissociate the work done in humanities and humanities-oriented social sciences from a reflection on the political and institutional conditions of that work” (1983: 3). What has always been priced in tradition, namely the “ruins” or cultural accretions of bygone ages which is the respectable task of the university to bring back, is now in a vaporised form. It has been jettisoned in favour of the needs of postmodern plutocratic culture. The ambiguity could also suggest a ruined state as it may be called in today’s idiom. Even the university is not free from the urge to generate capital. Students are but pawns assisting in the purpose.
Jeffrey J. Williams
Jeffrey J. Williams has an active academic panacea to this crisis afflicting universities. He calls it by the name of “Critical University Studies.” Each letter of the acronym has a precise significance. “Critical” relates to the opposition CUS has to “current practices that serve or wealth and contribute to injustice or inequality than social hope” (Williams 2012). “Studies,” on the other hand, focuses on its cross-disciplinary character, welding with ethnic, legal and development studies. It not only critiques higher education and accentuates genuine pursuit of education, it also assists student movements engaged in political action for better conditions. He attacks the newer configuration in universities with lowered student enrolment and regular faculty positions, and leasing out of research projects.
Contrastive Analysis
Of the two sets of researchers, Williams has a more clear-cut plan of action. While Hanke and Hearn provide accurate chronicling and present a clear idea of the stasis, the method of Williams is more productive and with a plan which he pursues with alacrity and optimism. Williams identifies the sick areas precisely and comes up with an agenda for countering it. His method roots itself in action. Ultimately, the vision remains that the university is a breeding ground for ideals of citizenship and public conduct, as set forth in the humanistic tradition.
Works Cited
Derrida, Jacques. “The Principal of Reason: The University in the Eyes of its Pupils,” trans. Catherine Porter and Edward P. Morris. 1983. Diacritics, 13, 3, 2-20.
Hanke, Bob and Alison Hearn. “Introduction: Out of the Ruins, the University to Come.” 2012. Web. Accessed 28 Jan, 2016, at https://www.topia.journals.yorku.ca/article/viewFile
Williams, Jeffrey J. “Deconstructing Academe: The Birth of Critical University Studies,” Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 2012. Web. Accessed 28 Jan. 2016, at https://www.chronicle.com/article/An-Emerging-Field-Deconstructs/130791
