Some under-the-radar #highered news from #Ky : the attorney general has found that the University of Kentucky violated state open records laws when it withheld a "Statement of Work" relating to #Deloitte, a firm it consulted in developing controversial plans to end shared governance at the University.
@KentNavalesi
People would be shocked to learn how much of the cold hearted, calculated nastiness that is thrust on the average person by corporations and governments alike is spawned in the bowels of very well paid consultancies like mckinsey and deloitte.
@KentNavalesi
"In When McKinsey Comes to Town, two prizewinning investigative journalists have written a portrait of the company sharply at odds with its public image. Often McKinsey's advice boils down to major cost-cutting, including layoffs and maintenance reductions, to drive up short-term profits, thereby boosting a company's stock price and the wealth of its executives who hire it, at the expense of workers and safety measures. McKinsey collects millions of dollars advising government agencies that also regulate McKinsey's corporate clients. And the firm frequently advises competitors in the same industries, but denies that this presents any conflict of interest."
They often consult on both sides of real conflicts. https://www.parnassusbooks.net/book/9780385546232
"Gesucht wird eine wissenschaftliche Persönlichkeit, die xxx in Forschung und Lehre in gesamter Breite vertritt..."
Immer wieder lese ich Ausschreibungen, die nach einer Persönlichkeit suchen. Damit wird ein Narrativ aus dem 19./frühen 20. Jh. bedient, das prekäre Beschäftigungsbedingungen als Teil der Persönlichkeitsbildung idealisiert.
Wie wäre es, einfach nach Historiker*innen zu suchen? (1/2)
@academicsunite
Passenderweise habe ich heute einen Aufsatz überarbeitet, der diese Idealisierung von Prekarität als konstituierende Phase im Werden zum Historiker (!) in der Autobiographie des Historikers Karl Brandi (1868-1946) untersucht. Persönlichkeit ist eines von Brandis Lieblingsworten. (2/2)
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Yes, there is no profit because it has already been mostly pilfered from the privatised system leaving governments to step in. In the UK, many universities for example are on the brink of bankruptcy. Money is taken out or squandered on anything except students and education itself. The state then have to step in to 'protect the free market' of education.
I see more and more scholars offering online seminars for a fee. Sometimes for a relatively low price (e.g. here https://hcommons.social/@medievalists/112236157667793040), sometimes for 800 to 1000 Euros. This seems to be especially common in the Anglo-Saxon world. I find this highly problematical and, frankly, unethical.
Who is the target audience? Who should pay for it? Students of these academics? Who hope to get better grades by participating?
Although I understand that academics are under pressure and are looking for alternative sources of income: This cannot be the answer!
Education should be free and available to all! What do you think?
The Southern strategy was the lever used in the US used by the GOP; Reagan (and Thatcher) were water carriers for far right wealth, they are templates of sorts. Debt laden higher education was deployed in the UK and Australia.
It’s a package in mainstream economics: privatization, deregulation, consolidation, austerity, debt burdened working people.
@easysociology@sociology@academicchatter@academicsunite
Education has already the target conflict of “learning to learn something” versus “learning to get some useful certificate” (which often might enable access to further levels of qualifications), which is already a hard conflict.
Trivial to see, that putting that into another commercial tradeoff can only improve things. Sorry, my sarcasm spills over today.
#Journals | Security and Safety "Secure and efficient Covert Communication for blockchain-integrated SAGINs"
Weijia Li, Yuan Zhang, Xinyu He and Yaqing Song
In related Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences news, it is true - about half of the scholarly associations moved off McGill.
The Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID-ACEDI) was amongst the first to move its conference from McGill to l'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) thanks to the diligent work of the executive.