Abstract
Taking the analysis of the Finnish case of public higher education as its starting point, this chapter discusses the following issues: the change in the mission of the university from being a knowledge-oriented to a pragmatically ‘utilitarian’ institution; the university as an institution situated between its academic mission and its entrepreneurial function; the impact of the policy of market competition and accountability on the quality, production and creativity of academic knowledge; the impact of globalisation on the natural sciences and the humanities in academia; and the new power equation involved in the relationships that exist between the faculties and administration.
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Notes
- 1.
The founding fathers of the German universities were mainly philosophers, a fact that becomes obvious when we read about the mission of this university.
- 2.
This scathing critique, which is mainly directed at American universities, may also find some echoes on the campuses of European universities.
- 3.
For example, the recruitment of international students is having a significant impact on the economy of many universities (e.g. in the United Kingdom).
- 4.
A small country like Finland is very sensitive to the positive and negative impacts of globalisation. This has provided tremendous opportunities for it to export its high-tech know-how, contributing considerably to its prosperity and welfare. However, the more the Finnish economy is tied to the international capitalist market and its avatars, the more the funding of its institutions is exposed to fluctuations in the market. Hence, the university, as an institution financed by the State whose financial room for manoeuvre has been reduced under the impact of economic globalisation, finds itself more vulnerable than ever.
- 5.
As elsewhere in Europe there is in the Finnish university, as stated by Taylor et al. (2002, p. 118), ‘… a plethora of Business School chairs in traditional, research-led universities, in the now seemingly respectable areas of Marketing, Accountancy – even Credit Management. Appointments such as the latter, if not the former, would have been academically and intellectually unthinkable twenty years earlier. At a more general level, the phenomenon of the global, corporate university located entirely within the private sector and usually with a strong emphasis on IT delivery and a virtual existence, is increasingly common…’.
- 6.
Polyvalence is becoming one of the magic formulas in academia. Mittelstrass (1994, p. 49) outlines three forms of modernity, which are represented by three heroes: (i) the space of Christopher Columbus (Kolumbus-Welt) (in this space man is seen as discoverer of the world), (ii) the space of G.W. Leibniz (Leibniz-Welt) where there is an endeavour to make the real intelligible and where man is the interpreter of the world and (iii) the space of Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo-Welt) where man tries to be an artisan and creator of a world that corresponds to his needs. Mittelstrass argues that the contemporary society is in need of a ‘Leonardian university’ (Leonardo-Universitität). In the spirit of Leonardo da Vinci (architect, engineer, artist, scholar) this university has to be a multidisciplinary polyvalent institution (see Renaut 1995, p. 147).
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Sabour, M. (2015). The Impact of Globalisation on the Mission of the University. In: Zajda, J. (eds) Second International Handbook on Globalisation, Education and Policy Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9493-0_15
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