Race and the Neoliberal University: Lessons From the Public University by John Holmwood
There is less public funding invested in higher education, a reduction of teaching support and a decline in the quality of learning.
Higher education as a social right:
HE has shifted, become more privatised – it is seen less as a social right and more of a personal responsibility
“Newfield regards the development of public higher education as part of a process of democratisation that would create full participation for all.” (John Holmwood, 2018)
- The privatisation of higher education will disproportionately effect marginalised communities and those from lower income families, making it harder to climb the social mobility ladder. It reinforces socio-economic inequalities for some communities, widens the financial gap , limits access to opportunities and progression.
“Many of those private colleges (in the US) were formed from endowments from wealth derived from plantation slavery. “ (John Holmwood, 2018)
- It is hard to consider institutions that portray themselves to be neutral when you consider their colonial history and how systematic racism is very deeply ingrained into the HE infrastructure. Examples include the ‘Land grant’ which involved building up local infrastructure to exploit lands from which native Americans had been dispossessed. Additionally, these HE institutions were also segregated and denied entry to African American students.
“… to ‘decolonise’ the university in terms both of access and curriculum … making higher education a matter of private responsibility rather than a social right is not neutral with regard to issues of race and ethnicity.” (John Holmwood, 2018)
- This structural issue can also be seen replicated WITHIN the design industry with inequality imbedded not the products and tools developed. In an article that explores the automation within graphic design, Laranjo talks about the shift from human generated design to that produced by Bots. They were cheaper and quicker in the ability to replicate design processes which meant craft and manual labour processes such as letter press and screen printing came at a significant cost. “Students did not want to pay high fees to learn something obsolete they could neither practise nor be paid for (in the future)”(Francisco Laranjo, 2016). This in turn creates an environment and industry that disproportionally effects those who may not have the financial freedom to work within an unstable and rapidly changing workforce.
- “The design practice that is not automated is the design that is not easily replicable. It bases its methods and problematisation on many disciplines and detailed cultural, social and political analysis of the context in which it works. And – importantly – it is one that constantly considers and involves those who will be affected by it, debating its consequences in an open manner. So far, bots are still flawed in developing such an approach… A key issue continues to be our difficulty in understanding and changing the way algorithms make their biased decisions. They reaffirm the Western canon of good design, serving interests with increasingly obscure and inaccessible criteria. These concerns apply to the majority of creative disciplines – graphic design is by no means alone.” (Francisco Laranjo, 2016).
- As Anne-Marie Willis in Ontological designing, a Design Philosophy paper mentions, “we design our world, while our world acts back on us and designs us”. (Anne-Marie Willis, 2006). These arguments highlight the concept that we do not exist in silos. The world we live in, with all the complexities and nuances of race, class and gender have a direct implication on how we interact and design for people. It is naive to assume neutrality is possible without consider the origins of design history and higher education institutions, and the communities were excluded and marginalised in the development of it.
“…the US system of higher education is highly stratified in terms of fees, with very high fees charged at private Ivy League colleges and lower fees at public universities, albeit that fees have risen dramatically over the last decade in all universities and have risen at a rate well above inflation and the real wages of lower socioeconomic groups (itself a racialised category)…“ (John Holmwood, 2018)
- Those with better financial support are more likely to apply to the Ivy league as they are more likely to afford it. This means the population of those students is likely to reflect that part of society – this could mean a lack of diversity in the type of students within certain institutions. This doesn’t not only mean in terms of background but life experiences and learning styles.
Conclusion:
The reading raised interesting points highlighting the idea of ‘decolonising’ higher education to be a far more nuanced and complicated issue. All British HE institutions are built and have benefitted from colonisation therefore cannot be considered neutral spaces. They structures used to support HE institutions replicate and reproduce the inequalities in society by shifting the perception of higher education to be a social right to a personal responsibility, supported by those who can afford to do so.
References:
‘Race and the Neoliberal University: Lessons from the Public University’, in Gurminder K Bhambra, Dalia Gebrial, and Kerem Nisancioglu (eds) Decolonizing the University? Pluto Press, 2018.
Willis, A., 2006. Ontological Designing. Design Philosophy Papers.
Hartnett, J. (n.d.). Ontological Design Has Become Influential In Design Academia – But What Is It? Eye on Design. https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/ontological-design-is-popular-in-design-academia-but-what-is-it/
Laranjo, F. (2016, December 22). Automated Graphic Design | Modes of Criticism. Modes of Criticism. https://modesofcriticism.org/automated-graphic-design/