By Emmanuel OJEIFO
Almost every element of standard definitions of a university has been the subject of controversy. Whether either teaching or research is central has been doubted. Many academics regard teaching as a real distraction from their essential mission; other think that research inevitably ensnares universities in commitments that are at odds with their true goal. Yet, the prestige of the autonomous university attracts many who claim a stake in it: students, businesses, religion, civil society and government all want the stamp of intellectual authority that only a university can give. And ironically when we list threats to the freedom of universities, the same culprits appear. There are hundreds of different universities, including Online Christian College, which is aimed at Christians.
Particular areas of controversy are related to the definition of ‘academic’ studies. A common issue is whether certain areas of knowledge are too market-driven or “practical” to count as truly academic. Another issue is the question of university autonomy. Universities have many resources available to them – in some senses positively thrust upon them – but each one of these resources has a price tag attached.
University can be quite an expensive process, especially if you do not have as much financial support as you would have hoped before starting your course. This is why extra resources like ceu seminars are availble to anyone who wants to further their knowledge, but do not want to feel like they are spending too much or any money at allceu seminars. From property maintenance to medicine, you’ll be able to find the right online seminar to help keep you on top of your interest and assist you in progressing with your future career. For anyone considering the idea of going to university, there is a lot to consider. From the best university in BC, to the universities in the UK, the first step would be to find out whether they do the course that you want to do. From then, you can make your other decisions. Going to university is a big step for your education, so think carefully about the choices you make.
How a university behaves in the light of those incentives is one of the matters defining it. For instance, modern universities benefit hugely from government funding, but increasingly find that government control follows government money. The autonomy of a university is therefore multifaceted, as various as the bodies or forces (government, organised religion, civil society, market forces) which try to wield influence over them.
In a world of quick fixes, fast tracks and instant results, some people conceive a university as a place where technical and practical knowledge and skills for career preparations are imparted. Others argue against this purely utilitarian and pragmatic conceptualisation of the purpose of a university that has become insidious today. To address these issues, it is important for stakeholders and policymakers in the educational sector to rethink the fundamental identity of a university. What is the essence and purpose of a university? What end is a university supposed to satisfy? What is its goal? These questions are of critical importance for the health of every nation’s institutions of higher learning.
“If I were asked to describe as briefly and popularly as I could, what a university was, I should draw my answer from its ancient designation of a studium generale, or ‘School of Universal Learning.’ This description implies the assemblage of strangers from all parts in one spot; – from all parts; else, how will you find professors and students for every department of knowledge? And in one spot; else, how can there be any school at all? Accordingly, in its simple and rudimental form, it is a school of knowledge of every kind, consisting of teachers and learners from every quarter.”
This is how John Henry Newman (1801-1890), the English convert to Catholicism and later Rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, began the opening pages of his book, The Idea of a University published in 1858. The book is a collection of series of lectures delivered by Newman from 1852 to 1858 in which he undertook a detailed discourse on his philosophy of education. In his book, Newman canvasses a middle way between freethinking and moral authority, one that would respect the rights of knowledge as well as the right of revealed truths. In his own words, “The university has this object and this mission: it contemplates neither moral impression nor mechanical production; it professes to exercise the mind neither in art nor in duty; its function is intellectual culture… It educates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it.” While Newman’s idea of a university carries a religious colouration, it nevertheless provides a solid foundation for rethinking the idea of a university, even in the secular society.
To qualify to be called a university, Newman believed that an institution must be “a place for the communication and circulation of thought.” This, he says, is the essence of a university. Up till today, Newman’s century-old description of an ideal university continues to thrill members of senior common room, even though he was adamantly against vocational courses. Newman described “practical knowledge” as “a deal of thrash.” For him, universities were enclaves, separate from the everyday world – places where students and academics engaged in platonic dialogues and where the outcome for both was a deeper understanding of the world and their place in it.
Much has changed. Today, employers, taxpayers and politicians all want universities to prepare students for jobs. Even in places where the purpose of a university is conceived in the tripartite fashion of teaching, research and community engagement, politicians, journalists and business people typically view each of these purposes in purely utilitarian terms. For some scholars in democratic societies, aside teaching, research and community engagement, a university should also have a social goal. Specifically, a university should play a major role in shaping a democratic, civilised and inclusive society. The British Nobel Prize winning economist, political theorist and historian of ideas, Friedrich Hayek, has also expressed similar sentiments. For Hayek, the purpose of social institutions, such as universities, is to increase liberty and freedom.
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How can universities shape democracy and increase freedom? The answer is that they do this by strengthening the voluntary social groups that make up civil society. Trade unions, professional associations, churches, political parties and business groups not only meet the needs of their members, they also provide a vital counterbalance to the power of the state. Such a balance is necessary because when the state becomes too powerful, liberty and freedom can disappear. But a strong civil society cannot be taken for granted; it depends on a solid foundation of education.
As Epictetus said, “only the educated are free.” The ability to speak at meetings, writer letters, organise projects, conduct research, analyse arguments, be aware of scientific progress and understand how government works are the core skills of democracy. They come from education. Civil society needs doctors, lawyers, schoolteachers and many other skilled people. They come from education. We live in a world of constant change; our society depends on our having skills to adapt. They come from education. Many studies have found that graduates are more likely to vote, to give to charity, and to volunteer their time. In other words, education is the vital ingredient on which civil society depends.
Nigeria now has a large number of universities. According to the information obtained from the website of the National Universities Commission (NUC), the regulatory body for the management of university education in Nigeria, there are 129 universities in Nigeria: 40 federal universities, 38 state universities and 51 private universities. However big the numbers of universities in Nigeria, a precious few really qualify for that title. While some universities in both private and public sectors are currently establishing institutional procedures and processes through which they will achieve international standards at some point in the future, a great many are degenerating by the day into citadels of rot and crime.
A university is, perhaps, the most complex institution ever devised, since it aims to nurture the highest human faculty: the intellect. It can be argued that two of the defining features of a university are: (i) the production of knowledge by the various faculties through reflection and research and (ii) intellectual training of the students so that they, too, can produce knowledge at some stage. Thus, research and research-based teaching are essential to the enterprise of a university.
The aim of intellectual training is the pursuit of truth, while the means is the discipline of the mind: the ability to concentrate and bring to bear one’s diverse mental faculties. John Henry Newman, in his discourse on the idea of a university, echoed the views of thinkers through the ages, when he said that “truth is the proper object of the intellect.” Such an intellectual quest involves developing both the capacity to analyse and synthesise. Sharpening one’s analytical ability requires training the mind for critical thinking. This was the method used by the Greek philosopher, Socrates, in his dialogues in 4th century BC, so that students learned to understand the ground on which a particular proposition was predicated. Only then can one think for oneself and make an original contribution to knowledge.
The ability to synthesise involves comprehending wholeness within diversity, and unity within plurality. Therefore, the university environment should provide student exposure, not only to specialties within subjects, but also to other subjects to give them the opportunity to develop an interdisciplinary perspective on human knowledge. The rules and procedures that shape the intellectual interactions within a university ought to enable the nurturing of both reason and the creative imagination: they must allow those moments of reflection, introspection and insight when the diligence of intensive reading of tutorials, lectures, symposiums and seminars are filtered within the synthesised university experience of a student into what Newman calls “the faculty…of clear sightedness, of wisdom, of philosophical reach of mind.” Thus, a university is a place for acquiring the power of thinking clearly and developing a humane sensibility.
The intellectual traditions of both West and East combine the use of reason with the nurturing of virtue in the human intellect. Socrates in his dialogues, through his questioning method, trained his students to use reason, as well as the creative imagination to understand the concepts of justice and the importance of ethical values. As one scholar sums it, “The significant differences between…our universities lie not in what they do but in their purpose; not in the state of their art, but in the state of their hearts.”
This idea of a university needs repeating today in our Nigerian society where many institutions of higher learning have lost touch with the decisive purpose that gives meaning to the university as a seat of learning. Nigeria today is ravaged by bigotry, corruption and violence. Reason seems to have been banished from political argument and religious discourse often divorced from its root in the loving heart. The university, in fulfilling its core function of nurturing rationality, humanity and civility, of teaching students to think for themselves and be creative, can make a vital contribution towards reconstructing the Nigerian society.
In its many forms and dimensions, education shapes the values that become operative in a society by helping to shape the virtues and character of its citizenry. In other words, if the quality of public life in the society is degenerating, it should lead us to question the whole process by which each generation prepares its progeny to assume their responsibilities as citizens. This is the entire undertaking of education broadly conceived. Education in virtue is education that guides the development of students in ways that enable them to become good citizens, men and women, dedicated to the service of the common good.
Education in virtue might sound like a rather antiquated phrase to describe the task of a contemporary university. The days when universities functioned in a moralistic way are over. However, the long and heroic tradition of linking education with learning and character, knowledge and virtue still holds the distinctive intellectual resources that are much needed on the Nigerian university scene today. Education today must go well beyond pragmatic and utilitarian benefit. Education should be concerned, first and foremost, with the development of the whole, thinking person, cultivation of creativity, maturation of social and cultural sensibilities, and even increased passion for life, learning and civic engagement of all sorts – what might be called ‘life and citizenship knowledge.’
Thus, an essential answer to the question, “What is a university for?” should be promoting knowledge and understanding for their own sake – beyond any relevance to a job – and educating thoughtful, caring citizens who have the skills and motivation for helping to advance the wellbeing and flourishing of individuals and communities. According to the time-honoured response to the question of what a university is for, “A university develops knowledge through scholarship and research. A university transmits knowledge through instruction. A university applies knowledge through public service.” This traditional formulation of a university’s purpose serves us far better than the dubious assertion of many scholars today that a university is primarily a place for the impartation of practical knowledge.
