I just returned to a UK university trip from my 16-year-old twins. The boys couldn't wait to finish their degrees and start their degrees, and I was excited for them. I grew up around college. My father has been academically educated for more than 60 years. My sister is the same. I was with former Berkeley Vice Premier Nils Gilman, who wrote: “No other institution invented institution that is good at educating a broad population to a high level of technical capabilities, nor create conditions for discovering new concepts about the world and the world, nor for maintaining the knowledge already created.” Britain has an advantage over the United States in having most governments that recognize this.
However, universities are in a state of crisis internationally, far beyond Donald Trump. Perhaps no other existing institutions have sympathized with our time. In fact, that's largely why Trump attacked them.
University is based on the implicit statement, namely the hierarchy of knowledge. Most importantly, those who spend their lives collect expertise, get certified in PhD and professorship positions, and test their findings in peer-reviewed writings. Recognized scholars have greater validity in their views on climate change or racism than those of random people. This privilege of knowledge is always offensive, especially in an era where every ignorance can be aired on social media. When U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F Kennedy Jr urged parents to “do their own research” on vaccines, he denied basic principles in academia. Right-wing populists always hold this position. I wonder why scholars are "biased" against them.
Academic enquiry requires that former Columbia University president Lee Bollinger calls it “extremely open-minded.” But polarized people don’t want to be open. They hope that scholars will recognize their opinions. Last month, I witnessed this dynamic at the University of Paris Science PO event. Several university presidents from European and North American universities gathered to express a common message: their institutions do not stand on political issues, such as the Gaza War. Individual scholars and students can form their own perspectives.
But every time the university’s head tries to speak, a masked student rises from a group of pro-Palestinian protesters in the audience and reads a statement for several minutes accusing the official of “complicity with the Israeli genocide.” Protesters don't want to discuss it. They drown any attempt by making discordant sounds on the sound system they bring. I don't think they did anything to help the people in Gaza, their problem is not the Western universities, but the Israeli army.
Cornelia Woll, president of Hertie School in Berlin, asked the hall: "Why are so many people hate universities?" Her response was that protesters and some governments wanted to control what universities call "substantive". Wall said that in fact, what distinguishes academics is not its substance, but the “process and method” it follows to achieve “common facts and knowledge.” Unfortunately, she shrugged, and for most critics, these goals were “too profound”.
Many of us rolled our smartphones in the halls during the protesters’ speeches – devices that have reduced concentration and reading skills. Now, AI has begun to cause even greater damage to universities. It has written many student papers. The first workers replaced by AI may be mediocre undergraduates.
Underestimation of universities takes different forms in different countries. In the UK, it expresses itself through the insufficient funding of the state to the higher education and hostility of immigrants who maintain these institutions. The University of Manchester has more turnover than UK Steel, but which businesses get more help from the government?
I saw the impact on my daughter, now her first year at a British university. Her academic experience was great at least when she was operating in the university. She just started a five-month period without any teaching, probably due to budget cuts. I used to think that the UK was actually only 18 months during its long vacation, and the UK’s numerous undergraduate degrees were actually only 18 months. Now it's much more than that.
Universities such as the University of Bologna (founded in 1088), Sorbonne (1253) and Harvard (1636) are one of the oldest institutions in their country. They will survive. But they may be narrowing down the symbol of classes, diploma factories, interesting parks and network clubs.
Email Simon At simon.kuper@ft.com
First learn about our latest story - Follow FT Weekend Magazine x and Foot weekend Instagram