May
5
2010
Tom Garvin on Irish Universities
Polemic on “Grey academics taking over our (Irish) Universities” in last Saturday’s Irish Times by Prof. Tom Garvin of UCD:
The idea that knowledge is an end in itself has become alien. There are powerful people who dislike free research and see it as pointless. The real cost of this has been immense, because the result is a loss of wisdom and imagination. Naturally, some people never possessed it, but the idea that the appetite for knowledge is a good in itself has always existed in Ireland. It is, however, under attack.
I don’t agree with everything in the piece, but it certainly makes for interesting reading. The comments, also, are thought-provoking, and worth a read.