The re-thinking of university education

The last two decades have pushed creativity and individual genius to the margins whereby children who display an enquiring mind that goes beyond the boundaries of the national curriculum and learning outcomes are regarded as “troublemakers” who do not fit in. We have stifled and failed those who are in need of intellectual challenges that go beyond the “course text book” by systemising and “procedurising” education in production like packages. The education system has “unlearned” society how to think critically by the continuous quest for examination success and certified status. We have reached the stage where education itself has become “uncritical” and has alienated teachers, lecturers, administrators and researchers from the true quest of its endeavours – that of free thought and expression, innovation, tolerance, equity, justice, integrity, rigour and transparency. This “uncritical” stance I argue has beset business education since the 1960’s, when its focus has been primarily on outputs not suited to the needs of those of who they purport to serve, a point eloquently made by C Wright Mills in his seminal publication “The Sociological Imagination”. The criticism that business management lacks relevance to real world problems is not founded solely by my personal perceptions but upon some fundamental themes that have been propounded in the name of “academic utility” that pervades business education and qualifications.