Me and Universities, Huh!

A couple of quotations from Benson that have relevance to the current university situation in Ireland. Although they are of some relevance to science (it has more freedom than these quotes suggest), I think they mean more if you replace the word 'science' with 'academia'. And in thinking of 'academia', there's no harm thinking of the humanities....

"We accepted the idea that science was like other areas, where you make a product and the whole thing can be run from the top down."

"But the real diversity in science comes from below, not from innovative managers above. We narrowed the compass of science until nobody saw anything but the approved problems, the conventional wisdom. To save money we stifled imagination and verve."

"To see you must have vision...All this talk of bloody 'socially relevant' work assumes a bureaucrat somewhere is the best judge of what's useful."

Okay, not quite as on the button as I might like to think, nevertheless there is a viewpoint here that's worth considering. The 'Top' are not always in the best position to appreciate what really has worth or what may some day yield real value. We have gotten as far as we have by letting people experiment and research areas out of a love for the knowledge, not necessarily the practical application. By dwelling on the pragmatic we ignore the visionary and possibly that which gives value to the whole enterprise.