Academic freedom

Press, 26 June 1989, Page 20

Academic freedom

Sir—While I support any protest against Government moves to curb freedom of academic speech which Ministerial appointments might suggest will happen, protesters at Canterbury want their cake and to eat it too. In activally courting funding from the Government they are giving away just as great a freedom, that of economic independence. “He who pays the piper, calls the tune” so if they want real academic freedom,

lecturers will have to come down out of their ivory towers and accept responsibility for the economic viability of their institutions, students will have to accept responsibility for the cost of their own education. True user pays universities would have to justify their existence with results. No doubt some academics would prefer their intellectual playground as is, unsullied by economic self-reliance. They have become a privileged establishment and fear the change the real world might force upon them. The Bond University in Australia appears to be a step towards useful, flexible education. We should follow that example here. — Yours, etc., KEN BROUGHAM. June 15, 1989.

Sir, —In the current debate in your columns the vital point has been missed that academic freedom is already severely compromised. A major component of academic freedom is the freedom to keep abreast of the debate and developments in one’s subject, and to contribute to them. But when increased student numbers make the load of administration and teaching so heavy that there is rarely time to go to the library, the laboratory, or the field station, where then is academic freedom? Mr Goff and Mrs Austin profess their desire to maintain academic freedom: they should worry about its repair. — Yours, etc-.,, WILLIAM TOBIN. June 16, 1989.