In this reflection, I would like to think about the course in its globality in relation the wider structures it operates in, such the University bureaucracy. I believe the course is a radical political experiment and it should aim to retain its political significance.
The University as neoliberal institution
Firstly, I believe it is important to keep in mind that the University exists in a very particular political and economic context, which both is reflected in and shaped by its structures and policies. During our group projects, we were led to do research about the inner workings of the institution; as we progressed, things seemed to get more and more confusing. Getting a big picture of the operation of decision-making in the University was nearly impossible. We were trapped in a maze of committees, boards, and meetings that involved appointed administrative officials, business representatives, and rarely, students (usually in the sole form of the EUSA president). Even when we did find a global organisation chart, it seemed like the bulk of ‘where the power lied’ was missing; it did not mention semi-private consulting bodies (such as QQA: Quality Assurance for Higher Education, a government-endorsed company in charge of ‘evaluating’ education in UK education according to rather obscure criteria), and of course, big business. Yet another aspect was the ambiguous status and role of EUSA, as the de facto student representing body, a ‘charity’ and a company. All these webs of power were not immediately apparent to us; we did consider the idea of making a flowchart of governance in the University, but we had to give up when faced with the complexity and the amount of research this would require. The overall impression that we got from our attempts at understanding the workings of governance was that these networks of power-wielding bodies are so intricate, the bureaucratic machinery is so established and hegemonic, that students and staff hardly seem to have any say whatsoever in how in the University is run.
We took an interest in the operation of governance within the University because we understood our course as existing in reaction to the bureaucratic processes we had observed during our time as students and wanted to get a better sense of how these related to the wider structure of the institution. As a pass/fail course (this year, at least), Future does not partake in the University grading system – one that presupposes that the quality of a piece of work can be quantified and rests on an inherent hierarchy between students and their teachers. It also does not have a clear, predefined progression, or a set of established learning outcomes. This means that Future is a break from the quantification system that we experience in other courses, a system that operates at all levels in the University (particularly when it comes to assessment of ‘quality’ from consultants like QQA). It also does not engage in the SPS tutoring system, one that does not remunerate tutors fairly and holds them responsible for navigating the intricacies of an unclear, ‘flexible’ work contract. These examples (marking, tutoring) show that our everyday experiences as students are intertwined with a broader system, one that operates at the scale of the University and that is also embedded in our neoliberal capitalist economy: labour regulations, government standards for higher education institutions, the measurement of ‘employability’ and ‘transferrable skills’…
Radical learning?
It thus seems that the very existence of the course is political: it stands against most of the administrative requirements that reflect not only the workings of the University, but also those of our neoliberal capitalist economy. One of the challenges we faced during the year was defining ourselves in relation to the avowedly political movements to which Future is strongly tied: the 2018 Occupation in solidarity with lecturers’ strikes from which the course emerged, and various UCU campaigns (especially the anti-casualisation one). I think that the political nature of this course should be explicitly recognised: it is a learning experiment that is taking place in opposition to the structure of the University and its embeddedness in a specific economic system. The radical nature of the course enabled the creation of a learning environment that was autonomous, co-operative and non-hierarchical. This is, for me, the most precious thing about Future, and also the one that holds the greatest political potential. The absolute freedom that we had enabled us to form groups according to our interests and pursue our projects using a method of our choosing, whether it be through relying on independent reading, ethnography, or more creative tools. In this process, teachers were just ordinary members of our groups, who could provide us with valuable insights on academic material, a different perspective on the structure of the University, and share the skills they had acquired over the years. Staff also helped us to get in contact with UCU and informed us about their own struggles with the University system as academics. It is precisely through these non-hierarchical webs of relationships that we formed a community and perhaps even a political movement. The Bureaucratisation group chose to focus on the working conditions of tutors, and one of the reasons we picked this topic was because of a sense of solidarity with staff that was also present in our relationship with teachers in Future. We hope that our research will help the UCU campaign and we aim to do some awareness-raising ourselves. Therefore, activism is at the core of our project, and it is through this lens that we related to theory and envisioned the format of our final product, as we decided to make blog posts, an audio project and to do outreach to students.
My hopes for the continuation of this course are that it will retain its experimental and radical nature, and even maybe further it with more tangible political goals. It is this political dimension that made Future so valuable to me, and I am sure this is also true for a lot of the other students. I believe Future would benefit from developing stronger ties with UCU and the wider University community; actually, it should aim at creating this community by bridging hierarchies between students and staff, and those existing within these groups. We had debates about privileging transformation from the inside, through compromising with the institution, or from the outside, by existing as a radical independent project. I think we should do both: try to implement small changes and present a different vision of what courses could look like to the bureaucracy, whilst also working with other radical initiatives to attempt at building a broader, University-wide movement.
Hi!
I thought this post was really good, thank you for sharing it! It’s interesting that the university has a global organisation chart of it’s own, even if it’s missing a lot of key institutions, and unfortunate (if unsurprising) that it wasn’t possible to create a more accurate graph due to the sheer complexity of the structure involved.
I found your point about how the existence of the course itself is a political statement in opposition to the current way of doing things at the university really interesting and I definitely agree that it would be great if the course became more integrated with the wider university community in future years.
Thank you for your testimony about the research into the governance system of the university. These words are not just useful for future students taking the course but also give such power to what we have created: a pocket of freedom within this hegemonic web.
I really appreciate your reflexion on the extent to which the course can act as a political movement. I realise reading your piece that it is maybe something (actions) that I have been missing through the year. Although we had clear values and vision, we closed ourselves to the possibility of creating something bigger, like a network of actions and reflexions.
It also depends on what the future of this course is/will be. The future students might want to create a course that is an experiment on how radical pedagogy could be used within a bureaucratic capitalist structure. I believe that activism embedded in our educational journey could be a very interesting experience, not only for us as attendees of the course but also to see how much this “pocket” can enact change at a larger scale. Moreover, the “inside” structure could change by interacting with wider movements and networks. However, different factors have to be considered especially the time that attendees of the course have to be involved outside the meeting hours. It is true that one of the challenges this year was the time necessary on the side of the meeting hours to organise and prepare the sessions. Engage with the wider community would require more time and energy from students and staffs and that is something that could be decided at the beginning of September 2019: How do we want to experience this course? What impact do we want to have on the wider community (University/others)?
I really like your last sentence and highlight it for future readers:
try to implement small changes and present a different vision of what courses could look like to the bureaucracy, whilst also working with other radical initiatives to attempt at building a broader, University-wide movement.
Thanks for sharing this, it’s a very insightful read and puts into words a lot of thoughts I’ve had about this course but haven’t been able to express very well. I like your insight about the course being political, but would go further as to say it’s politically active; the politics and anthropology courses I’ve taken bear political insight, but are painfully passive when it comes to actually standing for anything. It’s been a question I know we’ve asked multiple times; how can these teachers and researchers do so much work on injustices, and yet be defeated by the bureaucratic machine of the university? You know me well enough to know that I’m a pessimist about most of these things, but your conclusion does present a hopeful plan and vision moving forwards, and I hope the radical thought of this course can continue into the future and make change happen.