Speaking of Universities

Stefan Collini, Speaking of Universities, Verso Books, 2017, 296 pages, $15.95.

These days universities are subjected to several different cross pressures. While there is some variation in how these institutions respond, there is little doubt that the larger environment in which they are embedded has placed increasing demands on these organizations. In an earlier era universities were relatively autonomous and somewhat isolated from the larger political economy. As universities have become more integrated into capitalism, it has affected the way in which they are organized, how they are governed, what values they represent, and how they are considered by business and other interests in society.

Contrary to the imagery of the university as an ivory tower, these organizations have never been as isolated from the rest of society as it might be assumed. Nevertheless, the position of the university in capitalist society has been altered by its confrontation with the neoliberal order. Tensions have always existed between pure research, the nature of academic inquiry, and the necessity to contribute to the solution of societal problems. However, in the present era, universities and colleges often are expected to be corporate or governmental service stations serving their interests rather than the interests of the academy.

This shift in the prevailing view of higher education has generated a crisis within colleges and universities and has caused internal divisions in the faculty and administration between those who accept the “new realities” and those who hold on to academic ideals. Some of these divisions involve the allocation of resources devoted to the liberal arts and the humanities as compared to business and science.

Universities today perform critical functions for capitalist society. In a crisis-ridden economy, higher education provides new areas of profitability and deepened ties with business, health care, and technology; it plays a central role in driving a knowledge-based economy. In addition, universities are crucial in developing new ideological justifications for social, economic, and political inequalities which have characterized the neoliberal moment. The increased pressures placed on higher education have led many to ask whether the mission of the university has been fundamentally altered.

Stefan Collini’s book is a wonderful addition to the debate surrounding universities. He provides a compelling account of how British universities have responded to contemporary challenges. In doing so, Collini’s comparative historical analysis sheds light on the essential issues which have characterized the debate. These include several questions: Who does the university belong to? What are the consequences of the privatization of higher education? Should the concept of the student be reduced to that of a consumer? What is the future of the humanities? What is the role of the university in a democratic society?

Collini brings the perspective of an academic steeped in the British university system who has witnessed the changing conditions in which universities are forced to operate. He writes with passion about how things have changed in academe and why some of those changes were inexorable. However, he also has a keen sense of what is being lost from academic life as corporatization takes over the university and the functions of higher education are transformed. Readers from diverse countries will identify with the author’s careful analysis and his view from the inside. While some of what is happening to universities is specific to the British system of education and its politics, much of what Collini says has wide application to universities in the United States and Western Europe, as well.

The central concern which Collini brings to the book is that the commodification of higher education is degrading the larger environment of the university. Particularly disturbing is how the effects of corporatization reverberate through the institution – from the administration, to the faculty, to the students, to the relationship between the academy and society. This leads the author to examine the fundamental question of who the university ultimately belongs to?

In the present era the answer to this question is that the university no longer belongs to the faculty, or, for that matter, the administration, and it certainly is not designed to serve the broader intellectual needs of the students. As the university as an organization is further integrated into capitalism, its mission has become distorted as the logic of business reigns and accountability is very narrowly defined by a series of metrics that conceal more than they reveal about the efficacy of the institution. As the author remarks, “the result is goal displacement where the metric means come to replace the ultimate ends that those means ought to serve” (39).

The author is not surprised that the degradation of academe is occurring, or that alienation has become a natural outcome for many in the institution who have witnessed the impact of the social, political, and economic forces that have buffeted the university. Collini responds by carefully dissecting the consequences of privatization, and the introduction of business measures of accountability to the institution. He also does a wonderful job of explaining how the ideals of the university have been compromised, the consequences this has for democratic discourse, and the disastrous long-term effects of reducing students to consumers. The author is at his best in providing, as he says, “an undefensive defense of public higher education.”

Collini’s impeccable academic credentials and laudable career add weight to his criticisms. His dissent from the current neoliberal arrangements and their disastrous effects on higher education strongly suggests that an alternative path is being suppressed. What strengthens his argument is that he is not against all reforms and he recognizes some of the shortcomings of the way universities have been structured in the past. As Collini counsels, simply adhering to the prevailing logic of privatization and corporatization is to abandon what made universities great to begin with - providing a space for disinterested inquiry and critical examination of academic canons in an environment in which ideas are accorded utmost respect and creative activity is valued.

The author performs a valuable public service by defending publicly-funded universities and rejecting the notion that higher education has to be subservient to the needs of capitalism. In so doing, he deftly demystifies discussions of the need to reform academic institutions in a rapidly changing world. He shows that recent changes in the funding structure of British universities have weakened these institutions and reduced their capacity to create educated citizens who have wide-ranging interests, understand history, think critically, and transcend the confines of a narrow technical or vocationally-oriented education.

Collini’s book serves as an example of the kind of social and historical imagination which is able to place what is currently happening to universities into its larger political context. It clearly illustrates how efforts by elites to restructure academe are hurting the institution. If universities reflect more consistently the interests of the capitalist class, then how will future students develop their capacity to see the bigger picture, to critique the social order, and to become full-fledged participants in democratic debate?

What is at stake if the university continues to be transformed into a corporate service station is these larger issues and what some criticize as “softer skills.” We can expect that the range of debate will be narrowed considerably and the capacity of future college graduates to grasp the interplay between biography, history, and social structure will be adversely affected. Stefan Collini’s great accomplishment is that he reminds us that universities perform a variety of critical functions and warns us about the dangers inherent in commodifying the knowledge-producing sector of society.

Peter Seybold
Department of Sociology
Indiana University/Purdue University- Indianapolis
pseybold@iupui.edu