Client-centered flexible delivery learning, & other wanks from the world of higher education

As we all know, a university education is a “product” that we “deliver” to our “clients” (the students). It is vitally important that we “allow students to realize their learning objectives.” Wankety-wank-wank.

When asked to provide a revised course profile (syllabus) about a course in ethical philosophy, one that matched the university's new mission statement, a philosopher at a prestigious and reputable Australian university wrote the following on page one: “Students will engage in a lexically-based interaction with the works of ethnic minority scholar David Hume.” On page two, he said, “Page one was for university administrators. This page is for students. You will be reading works by David Hume.”

The Department chair at another prestigious and reputable Australian university was asked to fill out a form by the university administration. A member of the faculty had stopped by his office to get him for lunch, and he said, “Oh, wait just a minute while I finish this form.” The faculty member waited while the chair studied each item on the form, brow furrowed as he thought about it for a few moments, and then wrote something down. He did this on each item, and then signed and dated the form. “OK, I’m ready, let’s go.” As he got up to get his coat on, the faculty member thought to himself, I wonder what that form was, and took a peek. The form and the answers went like this:

In what ways has your department changed its curriculum to help students attain the graduate attributes the University has agreed upon?
Scribbled in the chair’s handwriting, “Get fucked”

What changes has your department made to align with the University’s mission statement and vision for the next 5 years?
Scribbled in the chair’s handwriting, “Get fucked”

And so it went for the rest of the form. Now that’s what tenure is for!

But seriously, all this administrative hoo-ha really takes time away from working on how to develop a course that really gives students a chance to learn. I want time to give some real thought to the courses I learned the most in when I was in school, and to think about how to make that happen. Something tells me that's not what the bureaucrats have in mind though... To do that, the students would have to put some effort in and read a lot, and that just isn't the model for today's university.










p.s. Small business coaching