De vez en cuando comienzas a leer un artículo y lo marcas casi completo (uso Diigo para marcar en línea los artículos). Al terminarlo deseas enviarlo por email a los amigos o imprimirla y dejarle copias a todos los interesados en el futuro de la Universidad. Eso es lo que me ha pasado con el artículo de Mark Taylor, End the University as We Know It, publicado en el New York Times. Comienza con el siguiente párrafo:
GRADUATE education is the Detroit of higher learning. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand (research in subfields within subfields and publication in journals read by no one other than a few like-minded colleagues), all at a rapidly rising cost (sometimes well over $100,000 in student loans).
Y Taylor no se queda en la mera crítica ya que comparte varias recomendaciones, que aunque no son nada nuevas, me parece que son alternativas concretas para la creación de una nueva educación universitaria.
1. The division-of-labor model of separate departments is obsolete and must be replaced with a curriculum structured like a web or complex adaptive network.
2. Abolish permanent departments, even for undergraduate education, and create problem-focused programs.
3. Increase collaboration among institutions. All institutions do not need to do all things and technology makes it possible for schools to form partnerships to share students and faculty.
4. Transform the traditional dissertation.
5. Expand the range of professional options for graduate students. Most graduate students will never hold the kind of job for which they are being trained.
6. Impose mandatory retirement and abolish tenure. Initially intended to protect academic freedom, tenure has resulted in institutions with little turnover and professors impervious to change.
Una seis recomendaciones que pueden servir de base para el fin de la Universidad tal y como la conocemos hoy. Nos movemos en esa dirección o sencillamente dejaremos de ser relevantes y pertinentes.
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