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Issues in Higher Education Case Study Document 1

This is a simulated introductory speech at the Symposium for Higher Educational Integrity, held at a prominent university.

Good afternoon and welcome, esteemed colleagues. It is truly a pleasure to take part in such a rare congregation of thinkers and visionaries, gathered here for an enormously important event, more important now than ever before.

The reason that I believe our efforts to discuss, debate, and look deeply at the current state of higher education is so important is that the continued existence of higher education institutions as strongholds of culture and intellectual integrity is under fire. It is on the role of the university in society that I’d like to speak to you this afternoon. It is a topic that has come under heated debate in recent years due to shifting perceptions of the relationship between education and societal needs and values.

The realm of higher education is at risk of becoming an industry that churns out professionals due to external financial demands rather than a league of independent thinkers inspired from within by intellectual integrity and philosophical rigor.

This was not always the case. Universities have long been fortresses of the imagination and fountainheads of philosophical expansion. This passionate dedication to speculation and originality flourished not only in the humanities but also in the business and technical fields. To illustrate this point, I refer to Alfred North Whitehead, the English mathematician and philosopher, and to a 1927 speech he delivered to the American Association of the Collegiate Schools of Business. The address was titled “Universities and their Function.”

Early in his speech, Whitehead asserts:

The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. (Whitehead, 1927)

Imaginative thought and intellectual adventure fostered by universities, he goes on to say, are responsible for the progress of society from the Middle Ages to the modern age. We are not, in other words, in the business of creating workers to fulfill professional roles. We are in the business of creating intellectual pioneers.

Again, I quote Whitehead:

Apart from this importance of the imagination, there is no reason why business men, and other professional men, should not pick up their facts

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bit by bit as they want them for particular occasions. A university is imaginative or it is nothing—at least nothing useful. (Whitehead, 1927)

If higher education is to be truly useful to society, it should not focus on producing tradespeople, but on producing thinkers who can move society forward on the path of human progress. This has long been the university’s function and it is this tradition that we have to thank for the imaginative advancements we currently enjoy. It would be a true tragedy to human aspiration to abandon that path.

I would add to Whitehead’s definition of the university’s role as the bastion of future human achievement. Institutions of higher education must also be the sacred guardians of past achievements. Inherent in our devotion to intellectual and imaginative worth must be an appreciation and commitment to preserving the cultural relics of our history. It is from our understanding of the past that the imagination thrives and propels progress.

I will give you an example of this function at work in today’s world. The Turkish city of Safranbolu has a remarkable cultural and architectural history. The Restoration College of Safranbolu was established through a local university in 1992 to serve as the authority on cultural restoration. There was concern that existing efforts of preserving and understanding the city’s artifacts were counterproductive due to the workers’ lack of historical knowledge. Invaluable artifacts were at risk of being lost or destroyed. In 1994, Safranbolu was named a World Heritage site because its ancient buildings have retained much of their original character (Özköse, 2014). Without the intervention of an institute of higher education, we might well have lost a valuable key to our understanding of human civilization. Similar examples can be found when we explore the role that university scholarship has played in the preservation of indigenous languages, which hold a treasure trove of insight into the profundity of the human mind and the diversity of human culture.

Especially in the digital age, when information is disseminated far and wide in a sometimes random and undiscerning manner, universities have a responsibility to preserve the integrity of human history, which has been archived with unfathomable diligence for thousands of years. Let us not abandon our mission. Let us not be swayed by the fear-driven pressure of economic influence. We, in the higher education community, have a duty to human civilization, past and present, to maintain our commitment to humanity’s cultural assets and pioneering intellectual spirit.

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References

Lujan, P. (2014, March 6). Role of education in the preservation of Guam’s indigenous language. Retrieved from http://guampedia.com/role-of-education-in- the-preservation-of-guams-indigenous-language/

Maheshwari, V.K. (2013, November 8). Culture and education. Retrieved from http://www.vkmaheshwari.com/WP/?p=1249

Özköse, A. (2014). The importance of education in the preservation of cultural heritage in Turkey: The role of the Restoration College of Safranbolu in the preservation of the city of Safranbolu. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/2759094/THE_IMPORTANCE_OF_EDUCATION_IN_ THE_PRESERVATION_OF_CULTURAL_HERITAGE_IN_TURKEY_The_Role_ of_the_Restoration_College_of_Safranbolu_in_the_Preservation_of_the_City_of _Safranbolu_

Reyhner, J. (1999). Some basics of indigenous language. In J. Reyhner, G. Cantoni, R. N. St. Clair, & E. P. Yazzie (Eds.), Revitalizing indigenous languages (pp. v-xx). Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University. Retrieved from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/RIL_Intro.html

Rumsey, A. S. (2013, April). Creating value and impact in the digital age through translational humanities. Retrieved from http://www.clir.org/pubs/ruminations/03smithrumsey/translational_humanities

Whitehead, A. N. (1927). Universities and their function. Retrieved from https://webspace.utexas.edu/hcleaver/www/330T/350kPEEwhiteheadunivfxtable. pdf

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