By Takura Zhangazha
The pursuit of knowledge of the academic kind is generally
viewed as a virtue/arete. By this the inference is not a just a moralistic one but one that also resides in Plato and Aristotle's understanding of the pursuit of knowledge. Therein knowledge
is not knowledge for its own sake but for the good of society in a non-ambivalent
search for truth.
Zimbabwe’s tertiary institutions and to be particular, its universities
have been traditionally viewed as institutions that should be doing just that,
pursuing virtue. It is this impression that generally lends anyone who has acquired
a doctorate in one academic field or the other everlasting reverence from
adoring relatives, friends and work colleagues. In fact this admiration
expresses itself in the truth that once one is referred to as a doctor or
professor, it is a perpetual social title even in non-academic conversations and circles.
The assumption is that these qualifications have been
acquired from institutions that are not only credible but ranked among the
best and most competitive in terms of academic excellence and academic freedom.
The reality is that our universities are no longer the harbingers of the
unbridled and open pursuit of knowledge or virtue. This, for a number of
reasons.
The foremost of these reasons being that none of our present
(and even planned) tertiary institutions value the all important principle of academic
freedom. It is a principle that is the sine qua non of any decent institution of
higher learning and entails the unfettered pursuit of knowledge both for its
own sake as well as with the intention of improving our understanding of the
societies in which we live, for the common good. Where this principle is recognized
and enforced, students, academics and non academics will be able to associate,
assemble and express themselves freely.
Unfortunately, not a single academic institution in the
country, at the moment, has demonstrated the above cited characteristics that are
key for the enjoyment of academic freedom.
Most campuses are literally like prison compounds with
students and staff being monitored as to who they associate with, what ideas
they peddle and who they invite from broader society to interact with the
university. Student unionism, staff associations are either prohibited or
severely restricted or only permitted where and when they parrot central
university administration’s political and policy preferences. As a result of
such an environment there has been no active pursuit of knowledge as a virtue
in all of our universities. Instead what obtains is the pursuit of knowledge merely
as a qualification to the extent that the oft repeated phrase by students is
that ‘one is better off if they keep quiet and finish their degrees’ no matter
the injustices they experience or witness.
The second and equally debilitating reason as to why our
universities are no longer citadels of academic excellence or virtue is their
unbridled pursuit of profit. This at the expense of most things academic. Ever
since the government significantly reduced funding for universities, their new-found
business models treat students and lecturers like commodities off a factory
production line. Except that the commodities pay to be on the conveyor belt
without a specific guarantee that they will be the full article after
production.
What this has led to is a culture of profiteering at the expense of
knowledge production. This particularly so where and when it comes to what most
universities refer to as the ‘parallel programmes’ for undergraduates. These,
coupled with the now ubiquitous post graduate programmes in Business
Administration and Development studies are the new university ‘cash cows’. This
would not be a problem were these fundraising models being utilized for the
promotion of academic freedom. Unfortunately however, they function in tandem with
the repressive academic environment at the universities where the most visible
and most critical element of university administrations remains the uniformed
and punitive security guards.
Where arguments have been made about the right to education,
this fundraising model remains one that limits the enjoyment of this right by
citizens. It prioritizes the ability to pay over and above the right to an
education to the extent that students more often than not fail to complete their
studies due to financial constraints. Where they scrape through it is at great
cost to not only their purse but also their academic aptitude and freedom
(especially with the cadetship scheme).
In the final analysis, our universities perhaps are the
default victims of state ineptitude and indifference toward higher education.
But this does not absolve those in charge of them of complicity in the demise
of academic freedom and the prioritization of inimical profit above all else.
It would do well for vice chancellors to have that two line poem by Dambudzo
Marechera posted on their doors, ‘Pub Conversation: My name is not money, but
mind.’
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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