The ‘social purpose’ university - social engineering by another name.
Towards the end of last year, the University of the Arts London (UAL) announced that it had become the first ‘social purpose university’. The UAL is a federation of six art colleges in London and is one of the top-ranking arts universities in the world. Polly Mackenzie, UAL’s new Chief Social Purpose Officer, declared that the university was part of the social purpose ‘movement of our time’, which would organise around four social purpose goals: ‘creativity, diversity, the environment and prosperity for all’. [1] James Purnell, Vice Chancellor of University of the Arts London, posted on LinkedIn that, ‘…social purpose is fertile ground. Our strategy … is built around it.’ [2]
In Scotland too, social purpose is being embedded throughout the higher education sector. In August 2022, Dundee University agreed to ‘The Blantyre Declaration – A shared commitment to social purpose’ – a partnership with Malawi’s six public universities. [3] The Blantyre Declaration proposed ‘a blueprint for good partnership and reducing inequality’. [4]
Another partnership, between the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, founded ‘Scotland Beyond Net Zero’ to tackle ‘the world’s greatest existential threat’ through combining ‘our already world-class research in climate science to boost collaborations between experts, further empower the communities we operate in, and better inform policy makers on the hard decisions they have to make for Scotland to reach its ambitious target of reaching net zero by 2045’. [5]
While Scottish universities may not publicly call themselves social purpose universities, they are certainly part of the ‘movement’ and share the same commitment to embedding the triumvirate of ‘climate emergency’/net zero, ‘equality, diversity and inclusion’/decolonisation and ‘global citizenship’ throughout university life.
Although it might be comforting to think that this represents a mere tilt in the subject-driven or skills-based academic thinking and teaching for the new century, this would be a mistake. It is nothing short of a seismic shift in our understanding of the role and function of the university in society. A liberal interpretation of the university – as a place for transmitting canonical knowledge from the past to the next generation – is being upended. The leaders of this movement make no secret of their belief that the university, as we once knew it, is no longer fit for purpose; indeed, it is highly problematic and destructive in dealing with the ‘existential crisis’ we face in today’s world.
While the ‘presentist’ idea of the role and function of the university – as an instrumentalising institution in the service of the elite – has been a long time in the making, it was in the last few decades of the previous century that it took hold. [6]
The idea of the social purpose university is rooted in the ideology of ‘social justice’. It is a wide-ranging and enveloping political intervention that requires academic activists to imbibe their students in its core tenets – environmentalism, race and gender – to create a new model army of active(ist) citizens.
The focus of educationalist and academic activists is the creation of a new moral and political framework that is in sync with the beliefs of the new political elite. It is less about the transmission and accrual of knowledge for personal and societal benefit, and more a self-conscious curriculum of political indoctrination.
For all their pronouncements of enabling a better-informed citizenry and a more democratic society, it is a profound lack of faith in both that has led the new elites in education to a programme of moral and social engineering through higher education, to solve society’s problems.
The comprehensive capture of higher education by the ideology of social justice is upon us, in part, because academic activists have been kicking at an open door. Too many educationalists, thinkers and academics who were committed to the classical ideal of knowledge-based education, and who saw this coming, found themselves increasingly silenced, isolated and denounced. But perhaps too, more broadly, a failure of intellectual nerve played its part.
The nineteenth century school inspector Matthew Arnold, in his book Culture and Anarchy, said that ‘we should teach the best that has been thought and known ... so that we can see things as they really are’. [7] For centuries, this has been a widely held (if contentious) view of classical liberal education that has all but been crushed under the weight of a politicised and instrumentalised attitude to the university over the past 50 years.
The social purpose university is an explicit challenge and threat to the classical ideal of the university as a transmitter of knowledge, and with it, the role of the academic and the subject-based expert lecturer. By constricting the sphere of knowledge – and with it the idea of a liberal education – to fit narrow contemporary political and ideological concerns, knowledge is being relegated as opposed to it being of the highest order. Further, social purpose denigrates the idea of the student having the moral and intellectual resources to think critically and independently.
While the social purpose university is now entrenched in Scotland [and the UK], it is not the time to beat a retreat. Although those pushing the social purpose agenda may hold the levers of cultural power, at the same time their cultural insecurity is evident in their inability to countenance criticism, preferring to silence, censor and discredit dissenters. Education is just too important to leave it to those who would rather indoctrinate.
References
1. https://medium.com/@press.office/why-social-purpose-and-why-now-4f350cd1d8ce2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/james-purnell-designing-university-around-/
7. https://historyofeducation.net/2022/03/12/what-do-we-mean-by-the-best-thats-been-thought-and-known/
Alex Cameron (March 2024)
Originally published on scottishunionforeducation.substack.com/
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