‘Universities are little more than glorified secondary schools’

Over the past month I have followed a debate in this column about teaching at third level and the pressures facing lecturers.

Before I came to university I had the impression that the study of the humanities was designed to allow students to explore, research and broaden their minds. I had assumed that we would be encouraged to develop our individualism and capacity for critical thinking. How wrong I was.

On entering college I had a wake-up call. The humanities are no longer a safe haven for academia. The study of such subjects is no longer about broadening the mind or the development of independent thought. It is about cramming for exams at the end of each semester and approaching essays in such a manner that a week after they’re submitted you can no longer recall what you wrote. The modern university is about the force-feeding and regurgitation of ideas, not about learning to pursue knowledge for its own end.

Academic staff are being undermined by the ever-increasing bureaucratisation of the institution. As the ever-expanding layers of management decide how and what academics research and teach, their students are suffering.

The Department of Education, along with the HEA, seems intent on systematically destroying third-level education.

Unfortunately for my college, top levels of management within the university seem intent on doing the same. Restrictions on hiring new staff, lack of funding and the understaffing of many departments, a lack of adequate books in the library, along with the insane obsession with league tables and tightening control of academic freedom, are transforming the university into little more than a glorified secondary school.

As our lecturers are restricted from perusing research in a real and meaningful way, due to contract changes and time constraints, we as students suffer. We suffer every time an academic retires and isn't replaced and every time an academic leaves Ireland to pursue a career abroad due to the insane restrictions they face at home.

When you take a step back you cannot help but wonder what manner of education we are supposed to be acquiring. Are we, the future generations, to be subject to the parochial sort of education that teaches us to obey and to reiterate the views that we are presented with, or are we to be a generation who, through education, are encouraged to expand our ability for critical thinking and to question conventional wisdom, thus enriching our society as a whole?

I fear it is the former that is now winning, with the increasingly neoliberal approach to education taking hold, with its managerialist mania. Under this system it will not be until big business complains enough about the quality of our graduates that things will change.

This column is designed
to give a voice to those within the education system
who wish to speak
out anonymously.
Contributions are welcome: educationdesk@irishtimes.com