Smart economy is where all good work is respected — even mine By Maura Adshead

Everybody loves nurses. We all know what they do and we appreciate it. If you know a good mechanic, like the one I am blessed to know, you know that is a relationship to treasure. There are other jobs that nobody really understands, but still we accept that they have to be done.

Human resources is a bit like this. Nobody outside of HR ever really knows what people inside HR do, but still we all appreciate that HR is important work that must be done. Other jobs are less well understood or appreciated: The stereotypes about lawyers, or bankers, or builders suffice to describe these. Then there are the peculiar jobs that few understand and fewer appreciate. Financial risk management, for example, who knows anything about that? (Obviously not many people in Ireland in the last few years).

Then there’s my job. I am an academic. “Hmmph”, I hear some say: “pure affectation”. You might better recognise my job as lecturer. But in truth, lecturing is only a portion of what I do. I also create courses and programmes at undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral level. I accredit courses and programmes in other universities. I carry out commissioned and non-commissioned research, I present my work at specialist conferences, and I write: This is one example, but most usually it’s more specialist articles, books, book chapters, and papers (for specialist, read “incredibly dull”).

There is quite a bit of mystery attached to this work, plus some endearing old clichés. The idea, for example, that this is a job carried out by absent-minded bearded old men, who sit in dusty, book-filled rooms and come up with brilliant ideas is pure fiction. Notwithstanding a few beardies, we are mostly young and middle-aged women and men working in offices in an organisation much like many others. No matter how attractive and desirable the idea of an ivory tower sounds, we are more likely to be found firmly rooted in the real world of mortgage payments, childcare, and income taxes.

I share this real world job with 10 others in my department. Between us we are currently engaged in six books, one Irish Aid/HEA-funded African university partnership to improve our understanding of systems of public administration and policy delivery, and one European-funded project to create an international network of excellence on anti-terrorism and security studies.

In the meanwhile, students come and go.

At this time of the year, undergraduate students are getting thin on the ground, apart from the visiting ones for summer schools and those serious about getting a headstart on their dissertations before the Autumn term. But master’s and PhD-level postgraduates are still coming in every day and it’s business as usual. For taught MA students, the period from the end of May to the end of August is known as the summer term, enabling them to complete their studies in a 12-month, intensive annual period of study.

It’s important to explain what we do, because most people — including the last few ministers for education — don’t seem to know. And now that universities have been identified as a key part of the smart economy, there is a stronger impetus to manage our work and demonstrate our productivity.

But how can we make universities more productive? There are two key directions: we can produce more students; and we can produce more and better research. In some cases, where there is under-performance, we can perhaps do a bit more of both.

If we produce more students there is a danger that these highly trained and highly mobile recipients of the State’s investment will leave the country and the investment is lost. If we produce more research, however, we increase the likelihood that investment will come to us: Universities rely on research rankings for international business and foreign students — better rankings mean more of both. More business developments co-located around universities lead to more local jobs. More students mean more local spending, on food, transport, accommodation, clothes and entertainment.

So the conclusion is often drawn that increasing university students is a useful strategic ambition and that university fees should not be introduced because we need to invest in education.

This is lazy logic and ignores the significant “registration” costs already imposed on students, which are all but fees by another name. As resources are stretched tighter and tighter across the education system as a whole, neither should we lose sight of the fact that everyone in the State is entitled to primary and secondary education, whereas fewer than half of these students will go on to university. The task therefore is to find a more equitable way to fund everyone’s educational needs and spread the costs more fairly. Investment in education should reflect this ambition.

Rather than aspiring to put more and more students into universities (and even considering creating more universities to achieve this ambition), we need to focus on the quality of research carried out in universities and ensure that it is internationally competitive. This is what academics are trained to do and what they should be expected to do. Universities will always have a responsibility to teach, but this is a responsibility that they share with a much broader range of institutions across the third level sector. Now, more than ever, this diversity needs to be maintained and supported.

A SMART economy is one that sustains a multiplicity of jobs and provides the educational training necessary to accomplish this. In a smart economy, I should not have to devalue the work that I do, to appreciate the work done by someone else. The work of academics should not be elevated beyond its intrinsic and rational economic utility, but neither should it be castigated as arcane or indulgent.

So, speaking as an academic — or as a knowledge worker in the smart economy if you prefer — I’d have to say that I think that my job is useful, but only as useful as all the other useful jobs in a productive and functioning economy.

There is for me still nothing to beat the thrill of watching a good mechanic listen to my car engine and then tell me what’s wrong with it. I still don’t doubt the fact that everyone likes nurses and that even if I don’t fully understand what they do, we probably also need people in HR and risk management.

The fact is, a smart economy is one where good work is respected, and as many people as possible are engaged in it. There are some jobs that we all understand and appreciate, and others that we do not.

The education system must support them all.