[INDOLOGY] Op-ed

[Greg Bailey]

Dear All,

The concerns expressed in the article sent by Patrick and then commented upon by Dominik and Dermot are extremely worrying. In Australia this imposition of neo-liberal modes of organization and accompanying use of language have been going on for two decades and major damage has been done to the university system, and, in fact, to most other public sector institutions. The average vice-chancellor here is earning over $A600, 000 pa and is surrounded by a huge and highly paid entourage. The system has been utterly corporatized such that whenever a new vice-chancellor comes in, many of the deputy vice-chancellors are dismissed. That is, a new broom comes in and sweeps out the old, in the classic manner of the CEO of a large company.  The academic staff always suffer and there is a progressive whittling away of academic positions.

The best book I have seen on this problem generally is P. Dardot and C. Laval, La Nouvelle Raison du Monde: Essai sur la Société Néolibérale, La Découverte, Paris, 2009, which argues that neo-liberal thinking now permeates all institutional thinking.

On a more Indological matter, can anyone recommend books/articles on the uses of bh? and as in Vedic literature. I seem to recollect an article on this by Delbrück, but do not have an exact reference.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Greg Bailey

From: "dermot at grevatt.f9.co.uk<mailto:dermot at grevatt.f9.co.uk>" <dermot at grevatt.f9.co.uk<mailto:dermot at grevatt.f9.co.uk>>
Date: Tuesday, 29 April 2014 8:31 PM
To: Indology List <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>, +++RISA ACADEMIC DISCUSSION LIST+++ <risa-l at lists.sandiego.edu<mailto:risa-l at lists.sandiego.edu>>
Cc: Indology List <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>, +++RISA ACADEMIC DISCUSSION LIST+++ <risa-l at lists.sandiego.edu<mailto:risa-l at lists.sandiego.edu>>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Op-ed

To Dominik's references, may I add Martha Nussbaum,Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (Princeton U Press 2010). Not specifically about the market model which misrepresents students as customers, but it does attack the idea that education should have economically measurable outcomes.

Dermot Killingley

On 29 Apr 2014 at 3:31, Dominik Wujastyk wrote:

>
> Traphagan makes an excellent point. I have also long maintained - in
> conversation with patient friends and colleagues - that "business" is
> an entirely inappropriate metaphor for understanding or regulating
> what happens in universities.
>
> Anthropologists like Cris Shore and Susan Wright (1999 ), Marylin
> Strathearn (1997), Strathern and contributors (2000 ), again Shore
> (2008), and other social anthropologists have identified and studied
> the spread of "audit culture" and the marketization of higher
> education since the 90s, and documented some of its distorting effects
> on teaching and research, and the effect of this cultural change on
> the working lives of academics.
>
> The costs of the audit process itself is rarely, if ever assessed. Nor
> has a serious public challenge ever been mounted, to my knowledge, to
> the logical circularity of the processes involved attempting to
> establish public trust in academic processes, although studies like
> Power (1995 ) do reveal major flaws and deceptions that often
> accompany a reliance on numerical and audit-style assessment in
> general, and even its pointlessness.
>
> --
> Dr Dominik Wujastyk
> Department of South Asia, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies,
> University of Vienna,
> Spitalgasse 2-4, Courtyard 2, Entrance 2.1
> 1090 Vienna, Austria
> and
> Adjunct Professor,
> Division of Health and Humanities,
> St. John's Research Institute, Bangalore, India.
> Project | home page | HSSA | PGP
>
>
>
>
>
> On 28 April 2014 15:31, Patrick Olivelle <jpo at uts.cc.utexas.edu<mailto:jpo at uts.cc.utexas.edu>>
> wrote:
>     You my like this op-ed written by one of my colleagues here at the
>     University of Texas at Austin about the "business model" for
>     universities talked about both here and in Europe.
>     http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday-commentary/20140425-unive
>     rsities-customer-se rvice-problem.ece
>
>     Patrick
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     INDOLOGY mailing list
>     INDOLOGY at list.indology.info<mailto:INDOLOGY at list.indology.info>
>     http://listinfo.indology.info
>



--
Dermot Killingley
9, Rectory Drive,
Gosforth,
Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 1XT
Phone (0191) 285 8053



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