Inflation, democracy, and populism

Author(s):  
Thomas Docherty

The crisis in higher education is also simultaneously a crisis in constitutional democracies; and the two are intimately linked. The corruption of language that shapes managerialist discourse enables a corruption in the communications among citizens that are vital in any democracy. Democracy becomes recast first as an alleged ‘will of the people’, but a will whose semantic content is prone to political manipulation. In turn this opens the way to a validation of demagogic populism that masquerades as democracy when it is in fact the very thing that undermines democracy. When the University sector becomes complicit with this – as it is in our times – then it engages in a fundamental betrayal of the actual people in the society it claims to serve. Populism thrives on the celebration of anti-intellectual ignorance and the contempt for expertise, preferring instead the supposedly more ‘natural’ claims of instinctive faith over reason. Lurking within this is a form of class warfare that treats real and actual working class life as contemptible.

Author(s):  
Brianne H. Roos ◽  
Carey C. Borkoski

Purpose The purpose of this review article is to examine the well-being of faculty in higher education. Success in academia depends on productivity in research, teaching, and service to the university, and the workload model that excludes attention to the welfare of faculty members themselves contributes to stress and burnout. Importantly, student success and well-being is influenced largely by their faculty members, whose ability to inspire and lead depends on their own well-being. This review article underscores the importance of attending to the well-being of the people behind the productivity in higher education. Method This study is a narrative review of the literature about faculty well-being in higher education. The history of well-being in the workplace and academia, concepts of stress and well-being in higher education faculty, and evidence-based strategies to promote and cultivate faculty well-being were explored in the literature using electronic sources. Conclusions Faculty feel overburdened and pressured to work constantly to meet the demands of academia, and they strive for work–life balance. Faculty report stress and burnout related to excessively high expectations, financial pressures to obtain research funding, limited time to manage their workload, and a belief that individual progress is never sufficient. Faculty well-being is important for the individual and in support of scholarship and student outcomes. This article concludes with strategies to improve faculty well-being that incorporate an intentional focus on faculty members themselves, prioritize a community of well-being, and implement continuous high-quality professional learning.


1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceris Burns

This article provides a practical case example of the way in which international collaboration between government, higher education and business can lead to new commercial opportunities for small companies which would otherwise lack the necessary resources for the extensive market research required, and also to enhanced knowledge and understanding for all participants. The author summarizes the results of her market research in France, undertaken as part of a TCS programme of the University of Stirling and Albyn Medical, a small Scottish-based company in the medical electronics business. The six-week visit to France was the result of a TCS scholarship supported by institutions in both France and the UK.


Author(s):  
Thomas Docherty

The contemporary institution fails to understand the real meaning of ‘mass higher education’. A mass higher education should address the concerns of those masses of ‘ordinary people’ who, for whatever reasons, do not attend a university. Instead, the contemporary sector simply admits more individuals from lower social and economic classes. Behind this is a deep suspicion of the intellectual whose knowledge marks them out as intrinsically elitist and not ‘of the people’. An intellectual concerned about everyday life is now seen as suspicious, given the normative belief that a university education is about individual competitive self-advancement. This intellectual is now an enemy of ‘the people’, and incipiently one who might even be regarded as criminal in dissenting from conformity with social norms of neoliberalism. There is a history to this, dating from 1945; and it sets up a contest between two version of the university: one sees it as a centre of humane and liberal values, the other as the site for the production of individuals who conform to and individually benefit from neoliberal greed. The genuine exception is the intellectual who dissents; but dissent itself is now seen as potentially criminal.


Author(s):  
Sonya S. Gaither Shepherd

The creation of computer software and hardware, telecommunications, databases, and the Internet has affected society as a whole, and particularly higher education by giving people new productivity options and changing the way they work (Hulbert, 1998). In the so-called “information age” the increasing use of technology has become the driving force in the way people work, learn, and play (Drake, 2000). As this force evolves, the people using technology change also (Nelson, 1990). Adapting to technology is not simple. Some people tend to embrace change while others resist change (Wolski & Jackson, 1999). Before making a decision on whether to embrace technology or not, people may look at the practical and social consequences of accepting change. Therefore, the technology acceptance model, the accepting or resisting of technology is considered to be a form of reasoned behavior (Wolski & Jackson, 1999).


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-248
Author(s):  
. Karomani ◽  
. Mahpul ◽  
M. Iwan Satriawan

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on various aspects of Indonesia, especially the economy. The government has made countermeasures by issuing various policies and social programs. However, the implementation of policies is not necessarily followed by the attitude of the people who are not disciplined and indifferent. The role of higher education is very much needed to provide guidance with a humanist approach. Therefore, it is necessary to have a synergy of good cooperation between local governments and universities in facing obstacles in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. The research aims to analyze how the synergy between the government and universities is in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic cases in the community. The research was conducted with a qualitative approach. The data were obtained through literature review and interviews with the Provincial Government of Lampung and the University of Lampung. The results of the study show that the synergy between the government and universities is good. This is shown by interaction and mutual support. Where the government acts as a policy maker and facilitator, while universities act as a support for implementation through community service programs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Briones ◽  
Daniel Leyton

Based on Foucauldian notions such as discourse, regime of subjectification, and governmentality, the article analyzes one of the dominant discourses constituting the affirmative action policy in higher education in Chile. Our analysis is based principally on main documents associated to the discursive formation of the Support and Effective Access into Higher Education Program (PACE by its acronyms in Spanish), the main affirmative action program in that country. We argue that this program deploys a meritocratic exceptionality subjectification regime that governs inclusion and right to HE through a discursive chain that articulates notions of selectivity, excellence, quality, talent, sacrifice, responsibilization and critique against the dominant admission policy. This articulation is inscribed and mobilized in the discourses about working-class students, their families and schools, and the university. This makes possible, on the one hand, the legitimacy of the program as well as of their students as new constituencies with the right to HE, and on the other hand, the strategic foreclosure and invisibilisation of the structures of inequality that sustain the majority of working-class students and their knowledges excluded from HE.


EL LE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Delli Castelli

This paper aims to discuss the way in which song translation can be used as an effective way of language/translation teaching, focussing in particular on German as a Foreign Language in higher education at the university level. Starting from some considerations about the distinctive features of song lyrics and their use as a didactic tool in foreign language, culture and literature classes, a reflection is proposed on a way to introduce pop songs also in language/translation classes in relation to a variety of possible translation skopoi.


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