The Idea of a University in the 21st Century

A two-day symposium: February 10-11th 2012 Long Room Hub Building

Universities are first and foremost intellectual communities which operate in the public good. The very idea of education as a public good has come under severe threat over the past years, and so in consequence has the very idea of a university. With the imposition of what John Guillory has called a ‘techno-bureaucratic’ business model, universities have become seen as mere arms or tools of dominant ideologies and political models, rather than as crucibles of ideas worked out through teaching and research. As academics, we have a debt to the future, to help to create intellectual citizens, critical thinkers, a responsible electorate. We are in danger of betraying our social responsibility.

Time and again, academics express such ideas without being heard. It is time to change the nature of the conversation, to insist on being heard. It is hoped that this symposium will be one conversation amongst many, in which academics begin to redefine and reclaim the role and function of the university in the 21st century. The stakes are very high.

Organizer:

• Professor Darryl Jones, Head of the School of English

Keynote speaker:

• Professor Patrick Prendergast, Provost, TCD

Provisional Schedule

9am: Registration
9.30am: Welcome: Darryl Jones (TCD)
9.45am: Plenary Address: Patrick J. Prendergast, Provost, TCD.
11.00am: Coffee
11.30am: Panel 1: The University in Crisis (Chair: Eve Patten, TCD)
i. Ivana Bacik (TCD), Defending the university in economic crisis
ii.  Aidan Seery (TCD), Knowledge and the university
iii.  Darryl Jones (TCD), The university: a utopian manifesto
1.30pm: Lunch
2.30pm: Panel 2: Managerialism and Neo-Liberalism (Chair: Alice Jorgensen (TCD)
i.  Paul Jackson (Birmingham), Why management is necessary and why managerialism doesn’t work
ii.  Bob Brecher (Brighton), Universities in the neo-liberal revolution
iii.  Kathleen Lynch (UCD), Neo-liberalism and carelessness in the university
4.30pm: Coffee
4.45pm: Ferdinand von Prondzynski (Robert Gordon Aberdeen), Reforming the university
6.15: Reception
8pm: Conference dinner (Trocadero Restaurant)

Saturday 11 February (IIIS Seminar Room)
9.30am: Keith Straughan (Milton Keynes), Head in the clouds? The realities and unrealities of university 2.0
11am: Coffee
11.15am: Panel 3: The Humanities (Chair: Crawford Gribben, TCD)
i.  Terence Brown (TCD), Theory: The God that failed?
ii.  James Connelly (Hull), Michael Oakeshott and Education
iii.  Jarlath Killeen (TCD), How not to defend the Humanities
1pm: Lunch
2pm:  Roundtable discussion (Chair: Dr Mary Robinson, Chancellor, TCD)
Participants: Bob Brecher (Brighton), Noreen Doody (St Patrick’s College), Patrick Geoghegan (TCD), Paul Jackson (Birmingham), John Scattergood (TCD)
3pm: Panel 4: Students and the Transparent University
i.  Michael Cronin (DCU), Captive Minds: The Tyranny of Transparency
ii.  Graham Allen (UCC), Transparency, the unpredictable, university teaching
iii.  Stephen Burwood (Hull), Why students aren’t customers
4.15pm: Coffee
4.45pm: Liam Wegimont (Mount Temple Comprehensive School): What schools want from universities
6pm. Closing remarks: Darryl Jones (TCD)

Registration (free) from 9am, Friday 10 February, Neill-Hoey Lecture Theatre, Long Room Hub Building, TCD.
Please contact Dr Sorcha Ni Fhlainn for further details: nifhlais@tcd.ie