In today’s world, the business of knowledge is bankrupting higher education

Speakers question models of postcolonial higher education at Habib University debut conference.

KARACHI:

Dr Farid Panjwani of the University of London was amused in the car ride from Karachi airport, when his driver brought up jaali or fake degrees. The director for the Centre for Research and Evaluation in Muslim Education had just flown in to be the keynote speaker for Habib University’s conference on postcolonial higher education.

“[I saw] how the man on the street thinks about higher education,” said Panjwani to a packed audience Saturday. The driver said: Jaali degree ki baat us waqt karein jab asli degree walon ne kuch kar ke dekhaya ho. You can talk about fake degrees when the people with the real ones have something to say for themselves.

This working class man’s comment held so much weight for Panjwani as it drove at the heart of his topic, the commodification of higher education. “If this type of conference were happening many years ago perhaps I would have suggested that there is a good model of liberal education in the West [to follow],” Panjwani said. “But today I would not give this advice. This liberal tradition, even in the West, is under attack.” It is being attacked for turning into a business.

Today students are not seen as minds to be nurtured but as consumers. Universities sell themselves. This, according to Panjwani, is what you would call a “commodification” of knowledge because it becomes something that is sold in a market.

It has become a private commodity, like a car, something individuals buy and sell for their own consumption. This is why people argue the State shouldn’t pay for higher education.



Contrast this, said Panjwani, with the model in which people refuse to charge money to teach, like old Islamic teachers. “Even when money was involved, it was not called a salary,” he said. “If you went to get a Holy Quran, you didn’t ask for the price, but the Hadya.”

And so, we have moved away from the ustaad-shagird relationship to the customer-seller. It is contractual now and not a covenant. Dr Panjwani gave the example of the commodification of higher education in the UK. This has meant, among other things, that because demand is low, entire departments and good courses, like Philosophy, have been shut down.

A few years ago, the Times Higher Education noted findings from research on faculty perception of educational quality: Five out of six faculty members said that there was a general adverse effect on standards. Half of teachers felt obliged to pass a student who didn’t deserve it.

Small wonder then that experts were concerned in 2010 that universities were just “pandering to student fantasies of a leisure-based ‘good life’”, preparing them for mundane careers. The commodification of knowledge prompted the former vice chancellor of Cambridge University to remark in 2006 that rankings, prestige and investments are strongly weighted towards their research, which makes it harder to give serious attention to their undergraduates.

Panjwani had just come from Indonesia where at an education fair it was almost like “a mall” with university officials acting like sales reps. “I noticed that apart from one or two, none of the institutions had actually sent a professor,” he said. Why couldn’t professors try to attract students as nurturers, to give them advice on what courses to take and have the courage to say it if their institution was not the best choice for them. After all, said Dr Panjwani at a later point, don’t we hear people say: Aap to parhay likhay hain, aap se ye umeed nahi thi. “There is a moral dimension as well.”

Knowledge is about skepticism, doubt. People say that doubt is a typically Western attitude, but Panjwani clarified this: They talk about faith. But, we must not forget that there is a long Muslim tradition of having strong faith with an open mind. “Doubt or shaq is also respected,” he said, naming Al Jahiz, Al Ghazali, Umar Khayyam. And so, higher education should seek to create a community of learners, healthy scepticism, and the ability to apply scholarship to society.

Comparison of higher education in the UK

1979 

• 777,800 students, including 58,900 (7.6%) from outside the European Commission

• Participation rate was 12.4%

• 48 universities, 30 polytechnics and 61 colleges

• Most of the money for teaching and research came from government grants

• Nominal fee and almost no student debt

2011 

• 2.5 million students, 14.5% from outside EC (overall increase of 320%)

• Participation rate was 47%

• 115 universities out of 165 HE institutions

• Increasing amount is generated from external sources

• Student fees of up to £9000; most students are likely to be in substantial debt

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2013.