I figured it was to educate people to get them ready for a real career. Eric Worrell writes “If you thought the most important mission of universities was to provide kids with professional skills to help them get a better job, think again.” Of course, we’ve seen institutions of higher learning offering degrees this century that make basket weaving look good (hey, at least with a basket weaving degree you can make great baskets and sell them for money), degrees that make companies not want anything to do with the applicant because they will just be trouble, degrees that aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. But, the mostly Democrat run schools are just looking for money
Climate change is the most important mission for universities of the 21st century
Universities are confronting the possibility of profound sector-wide transformation due to the continuing effects of COVID-19. It is prompting much needed debate about what such transformation should look like and what kind of system is in the public interest.
And, of course, the Cult of Climastrology is taking advantage of Bat Soup virus to push their cult
This is now an urgent conversation. If universities want a say in what the future of higher education will look like, they will need to generate ideas quickly and in a way that attracts wide public support.
This will involve articulating their unique role as embedded, future-regarding, ethical generators of crucial knowledge and skills, well-equipped to handle coming contingencies and helping others do the same.
And this means higher education changes are entangled with another major force for transformation – climate change.
How can universities credibly claim to be preparing young people for their futures, or to be working with employers, if they do not take into account the kind of world they are helping to bring about?
Much-needed transitions towards low carbon and well-adapted systems are emerging. But they are too piecemeal and slow relative to what is needed to avoid large scale cascading and compounding impacts to our planet.
Apply the graphic to universities. No fossil fueled vehicles, no fossil fueled travel for employees and sports teams or visiting dignitaries and lecturers. Heat has to be kept in the 50’s, AC in the 80’s. If even allowed.
Universities are key to enabling Australian society to transition to a safer and lower emissions pathway. They are needed to provide the knowledge, skills and technologies for this positive transition. And they are also needed to foster the social dialogue and build the broad public mandate to get there.
I’d say it is absurd that they’re saying that universities should be more about indoctrination rather than providing an education for a professional life, but, then, this is the way it has been going for a while.
They must become public good, mission-driven organisations devoted to rapidly progressing human understanding and action on the largest threat there has ever been, to what they are taken to represent and advance – human civilisation.
Indoctrination.
Some universities are already starting to build aspects of climate change into their operations. Most prominent have been efforts to divest university finances from direct support of fossil fuels. While some institutions are still dragging their feet, the University of California has announced it will fully divest  its US$126 billion endowment from fossil fuels.
Yeah, but they don’t give up their own use of fossil fuels, and then have to raise tuition even more because of the loss of that investment. Have fun, kids!
