Changes in University
The article by Simon Young explains how changes in Universities Education have taken place since the earliest times to the present. To attract the interests of the reader, Simon Young has employed use of several techniques to make his article convincing. Such technique includes personal anecdotes, comparison and contrast.
The article begins with a personal anecdote. Simon Young explains his personal experience the University for over forty years. He then moves the reader through changes in academic research which he finds disturbing, “the purpose of this editorial is to discuss the current state of University research and explain why I find some aspects of the current situation disturbing” The use of the sentence makes the reader increase his or her interest in reading more about those changes in research which Simon Young argues to some extend are commendable such as increase in number of individuals who enter university. He also argues that some trends that he finds disturbing includes the interference of Universities by political influences which aimed at short-term economic gains.
Immediately, after capturing the reader’s attention in the first paragraph, Simon Young starts basing his argument on his expectations of a university by first using Oxford dictionary definition. The Oxford definition reads, in part, “whole body of teachers and scholars engaged in the higher branches of learning.” The definition makes him create a strong argument about the expectations of Universities where he says that, in Universities two important things take place, educating minds which are essential for wellbeing of minds and acquiring of knowledge and ideas which thereafter enhance economic growth.
The definition and expectation of Simon Young leads the reader to the most important argument of his article. The influence which he says has been subjected to Universities by external forces. He explains some of the consequences of these external influences to some universities such as University of Bologna which has been in existence since 1080s. The outside interference came from the Roman Catholic Church, and, for several centuries, Padua was home to the only university in Europe where non-Catholics could get a university education. These interferences led to failures
