What on earth is wrong with some economists?
Yesterday I was interviewed on Newstalk 106 – for overseas readers, an Irish talk radio station. My task was to give some advice to aspiring students making subject choices, but just before winding up the interview, the presenter asked me to comment on what had been said by a well-known economist (who works for another university) on the same radio station: that Irish universities waste resources, are over-funded, cannot manage student retention and unnecessarily promote subjects that don’t attract any real interest. Or something like that. I am not naming the economist in question, since I didn’t hear him myself and he may have been mis-quoted, or I may not have caught it correctly.
But let us say his words of wisdom were accurately relayed to me. It makes me want to pull my hair out. What possesses apparently intelligent academics who have made a good career out of being in the limelight on the back of their university positions to dump on their institutions in this way, particularly when they do so by talking such rubbish? The key ingredient in all this (and I have mentioned this type of thing before) seems to be the suggestion that higher education serves no functional purpose other than to engage the mind, and that therefore university programmes (either teaching or research) that relate to specific national needs are misplaced; other than the need, of course, to have more economists.
Of course the broadening of the mind is a key mission of universities, and all systems of higher education must have space for programmes of study that do not target specific careers, just as they must make room for pure research. But the overall structure of the university system that is needed for any successful country must go beyond providing for free markets in student choice.
Before I get hate mail, let me strike a balance and admit that I have many good friends who are economists, and I even agree with what some of them believe in. But there appears to be a strand of thinking within the profession that fails completely to understand the significance of universities in a modern society. Sigh.
July 2, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I do believe, and totally agree with you that universities play a hugely important role in any country, but especially in Ireland (knowledge economy, etc, etc).
However, there seems to be a certain way that senior university staff look at things: they seems to look a lot on the bright side of what the university can produce in terms of education and research. Of course, these achievements must be celebrated, however, there is no excuse for ignoring the many problems and inefficiencies that exist. I don’t necessarily think that economists should have to support their universities if they see that they could be run better. Each tax payer has an obligation to themselves and to all the other tax payers to see that government funded institutions are run to their full potential, and that does not included keeping quiet about funding that could be put to much better use.
If universities do not want to be slated, it is time to make each staff member properly responsible for wasted time and resources.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on what I previously posted in your blog “Cutting to the bone”. How can we solve the problems?
July 2, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Anonymous, I’ll go back to the other post later and answer your question.
Just for the record, I am not suggesting that economists, or for that matter anyone else, should not criticise their institutions or the management of their institutions if they see something going wrong. What concerns me is that a habit appears to be forming of basing criticism on totally inaccurate or unproven assertions, which seem primarily designed to undermine the university sector as a whole. An informed debate is quite another matter.