Page 151 - Rižnar, Igor, and Klemen Kavčič (ed.). 2017. Connecting Higher Education Institutions with Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 151
Is Higher Education in Dire Straits?
skills necessary to identify what is profound and what is lacking any
concern for truth and meaning. Chopra, unfortunately, is just one ex-
ample, as lack of meaningfulness is present also in political discourse,
marketing language and even academia (Sokal 2008).
In his Introduction to Language, Cognition, and Human Nature, Steven
Pinker (2013) stresses the importance of clarity and intellectual rigor in
both popular and academic writing. He mentions Helen Sword, who in
her Stylish Academic Writing (2012) showed that, after studying the lit-
erary style of five hundred academic articles, only a minority of them
were well written. In the same vein, Billig (2013) starts his book by say-
ing: ‘This is a book which complains about poor writing in the social sci-
ences.’ His witty and highly entertaining book analyses two things: the
conditions under which academics in social sciences are working (mas-
sive expansion of higher education institutions, the number of stu-
dents and teachers, self-promotion, competition between disciplines,
which are divided into smaller and smaller circles) and the linguistic
nature of their work (technical terminology becomes superior to ordi-
nary language, noun-based style of writing i.e. reification and nominal-
ization, passivization, etc.). Ever-narrower academic specialization to-
gether with the growth of higher education (with the increase of both
the number of students and teachers) have led to turning actions into
lofty abstractions, which, in turn, have made academic prose incom-
prehensible and difficult to grasp. The multi-syllabled pomposity and
obscurity found in academic writing is, alas, the result of much hard
labour to learn the practice, because the empty jargon has to be learned
in order to write and publish articles even if you have little or nothing
to say. In Billig’s words: ‘Just like the learning of a foreign language, so
the acquiring of academic language occurs gradually over time’ (p. 58).
Conclusion (Walk of Life)
Is this a make-or-break-it moment for higher education institutions?
Maybe, because too little has changed despite numerous reforms at all
levels of education around the globe since the University of Bologna
was founded in 1088. What we need in higher education is creative de-
struction; we have to start innovating, by, once again, embracing teach-
ing and learning as fundamental missions of universities. We have to
rethink the preference of research over teaching in defining academic
merit. We most certainly have to invest more in education, but there
is little evidence that money makes much difference in the absence of
149
skills necessary to identify what is profound and what is lacking any
concern for truth and meaning. Chopra, unfortunately, is just one ex-
ample, as lack of meaningfulness is present also in political discourse,
marketing language and even academia (Sokal 2008).
In his Introduction to Language, Cognition, and Human Nature, Steven
Pinker (2013) stresses the importance of clarity and intellectual rigor in
both popular and academic writing. He mentions Helen Sword, who in
her Stylish Academic Writing (2012) showed that, after studying the lit-
erary style of five hundred academic articles, only a minority of them
were well written. In the same vein, Billig (2013) starts his book by say-
ing: ‘This is a book which complains about poor writing in the social sci-
ences.’ His witty and highly entertaining book analyses two things: the
conditions under which academics in social sciences are working (mas-
sive expansion of higher education institutions, the number of stu-
dents and teachers, self-promotion, competition between disciplines,
which are divided into smaller and smaller circles) and the linguistic
nature of their work (technical terminology becomes superior to ordi-
nary language, noun-based style of writing i.e. reification and nominal-
ization, passivization, etc.). Ever-narrower academic specialization to-
gether with the growth of higher education (with the increase of both
the number of students and teachers) have led to turning actions into
lofty abstractions, which, in turn, have made academic prose incom-
prehensible and difficult to grasp. The multi-syllabled pomposity and
obscurity found in academic writing is, alas, the result of much hard
labour to learn the practice, because the empty jargon has to be learned
in order to write and publish articles even if you have little or nothing
to say. In Billig’s words: ‘Just like the learning of a foreign language, so
the acquiring of academic language occurs gradually over time’ (p. 58).
Conclusion (Walk of Life)
Is this a make-or-break-it moment for higher education institutions?
Maybe, because too little has changed despite numerous reforms at all
levels of education around the globe since the University of Bologna
was founded in 1088. What we need in higher education is creative de-
struction; we have to start innovating, by, once again, embracing teach-
ing and learning as fundamental missions of universities. We have to
rethink the preference of research over teaching in defining academic
merit. We most certainly have to invest more in education, but there
is little evidence that money makes much difference in the absence of
149
