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AUTHOR Lewis, W. ArthurTITLE The University in Less Developed Countries. ICED

Occasional Paper No. 11.INSTITUTION International Council for Educational Development,

New York, N.Y.PUB DATE 74NOTE 28p.

EDRS PRICE SF-S0.75 HC-$1.85 PLUS POSTAGEDESCRIPTORS *College Role; Commurity Responsibility; *Developing

Nations; Educational Finance; *EducationalPesponsibility; *Foreign Countries; Governance;Government Role; *Higher Education; InstitutionalPole

ABSTRACTThis document discusses the role of higher education

institutions in less developed countries and the responsibility ofthese countries to higher ed:cation institutions. The university'srole in these countries is reviewed in relation to the university asbearer of the culture, trainer of skills, service agency, and theuniversity on the frontiers of knowledge. The responsibilities ofsociety to the university suggest that: (1) infringement by thegovernment on the university be done with due care, after properconsultation and advice; (2) the government should give adequatefinancial support for agreed to programs; and (3) the universityauthorities should be supported by the government and otherresponsible opinion in their attempts to enforce discipline. (MM)

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International Council for Educational Development

DOccasional paper Number 11

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International Council for Educational Development680 Fifth AvenueNew York. N.Y. 10019

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The University inLess DevelopedCountries

W. Arthur Lewis

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Copyright ,r) by International Council for Educational Development 1974Printed in U.S.A. August 1974

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PREFACE

Americans are approaching a quarter century mark ofeducational assistance in the developing countries althoughthe antecedents go hack to early missionary and humani-tarian movements. Not surprisingly, therefore, the 1970sshow signs of being a period of stocktaking and review.already expressed in such activities as the ICED project onHigher Education for Development (BED). The stocktaking(and soul-searching) involves not one but most of the majordonor agencies twelve in the case of ICED/HED-all ofwhich are concerned with reexamining where they have beenand what lines they should follow in future educationalassistance.

The question being asked more often than any other is: arehigher educational institutions serving the most urgentcommunity needs of the people while not aeglecting theadvancement of knowledge and enrichment of culture? Thetemptations of the reviewers may he to consider the role ofinstitutions instrumentally z.nd too narrowly. However, auniversity is more than a means to an end: it h,is to be morethan a glorified service station. Its attributes are many-sidedand some conflict with one another. It is a part of existingculture, yet a force for changing it through social change. It isa bearer of culture, but in Arthur Lewis's words, "far fromtransmitting the culture. is rather part of the forces that areeroding traditional society" (page 6). It is an agency pro-

BEST COPY AVAILABLEviding services for development. but also an institution forthe advancement of knowledge. It is a citadel for scholarshipand a strengthener of social conscience. It has local, national.and international missions that are interconnected, andmultiple purposes that cannot be defined in simple unequiv-ocal terms.

There is a place for the grand simplifiers in social thoughtbut those who would understand higher education in thedeveloping countries need a guide through complexities anddebated issues. Professor Arthur Lewis of Princeton Uni-versity is supremely well qualified to serve as such a guide. Hewas born in St. Lucia, British West Indies, in 1915. educatedat the University of London, and appointed to his firstfaculty post in 1938. He has served as Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of the West Indies in Jamaica and is now JamesMadison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton. Hiswritings are followed by thoughtful observers of theinternational scene around the world, and few men combinehis administrative and scholarly experience in the LDCs. Thepresent paper was given in January 1974 at the University ofIbadan in Nigeria to the Vice-Chancellor's Conference, anddespite the author's words of modesty in introducing thesubject, it has already stimulated lively discussion amongauthorities who have seen it. His comments bear directly onall the ICED has undertaken to do and especially on HigherEducation for Development. We seek through its publicationto bring it to the attention of the wider audience concernedwith higher education in developing ,ountries.

Kenneth W. ThompsonDirectorHigher Education for Development

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I am both flattered and puzzled by your invitation tointroduce your discussion of this topic, and have approachedthe task with no little apprehension. My experience ofuniversities in less developed countries is brief and episodic. Iam nut a philosopher of this subject. or a regular stud Ifits literature, to which in any case I have not had access .ilepreparing in Barbados for this ordeal. I see my role thereforeas not much more than that of the pampered dignitary whomthe professional teams invite to start their play, with theprivilege of throwing the first ball.

Let me start by telling yo.1 how I have ciivided the subject.so that as from time to time you are aw4kened from yourreveries you may recognize how far I have and estimatehow much more is to come. "Divided the subject" is toopompous a phrase. since it implies that I have tried to becomprehensive. The subject cannot be exhausted in a briefintroduction, or by an amateur speaker. More precisely let

me give you the four headings under which have beenmarshalled the various topics which will poi up as I try toassess the special problems of the university in a less

developed country (LDC').

These headings are:The University as the Bearer of the Culture.The University as :.he Trainer of Skills.The University on the Frontiers of Knowledge.The University as a Service Agency.

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The University as the Bearer of the Culture

The relative stress on the role of the university as the hearerof the culture and its role as the trainer of skills is noteverywhere the same. In a country where only one percent ofthe age cohort goes to university, the stress is on training forthe jobs which are waiting for them. But in the United Stateswith 40 percent admission. most of the graduates will go intojobs requiring no special training of university type. They aregoing to sell insurance, or be executives in television studios.or sit in government offices. Hence comes the Americanemphasis on higher education as first and foremost thetransmitter of the culture: the maker of the intelligentcitizen. the good American. or as we used to say in thenineteenth century. the cultured gentleman.

The American literature on this subject is large but is nothelpful to us. The British. it used to be said, designed theirpublic schools and universities in the nineteenth century inthe belief that they were the inheritors of Periclean Athens:their role was to make the cultured gentleman, knowingsomething about every aspect of human knowledge. well-mannered. and an active participant in public discussion. Thisinheritance has now passed to the American educators, whoare forthright in articulating it.

The situation in less developed countries is complicated.For there are senses in which the university, far fromtransmitting the culture, is rather part of the forces that areeroding traditional society. Much that the traditionalistsweep over. and think so special to their own geography, isreally no more than the universal culture of poverty. wl ichcould not possibly survive development. But the university isone of the destructive agents so. despite the small ratio of thecohori which it gets, it has inescapably lo define its creativecultural role. and to make its contribution to the evolvingpatterns.

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Let us treat separately two different aspects of "culture."namely social relations and aesthetics.

Traditional social systems are breaking down fast in LIX's.Extended kinship is giving way to the nuclear family.Religion is losing its authority. Tribal, princely and otherpolitical allegiances have been overthrown. The youngster hasto find a new code defining his rights and obligations andmodes of behavior in relation to other categories of persons.lle needs a new code of social ethics.

The students who pass through our hands are particularlybereft of signals because they are joining a new class, whichhas not previously existed in 1.1X's. and for which notraditional code exists within their own cultures. They arecreating a new middle class of professionals. managers.scientists. artists and so on. When this class emerged inWestern hirope. slowly from the fifteenth century onwards.it inherited the code of the medieval guilds: pride in thecraft, honest workmanship. honest dealings with the client,the goal of "zero defect." This same code exists in allcountries which have a tradition of tine handicrafts.especially in Asia. where sometimes the handicraft workershave been as much as 15 percent of the labor force. LatinAmerica and Africa also have their handicraftsmen but.except in Sudanese West Africa. these are a small part of thelabor force. The new middle class has therefore to grow intoan ethical code which is not a part of its traditi6n. It is theold ethical code common to all those religions and philos-ophies which are social-oriented, rather than spirit-oriented:but it has to he articulated in new circumstances.

LIX' universities have done this part of their job poorly.mainly because we have not recognized its urgency. and havenot set up our programs to deal with it. Our graduates.however much admired for their technic:A proficiency, tendto he scorned in their own countries for their lack of social

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661 Our t tilIntoLEconscience. their desire to get rich quick, and their lack ofresponsibility in dealing with their clients. Some of this scornderives from expecting too much from ordinary humanmaterial.. but there is a !laid core of truth in the complaint.

Our governments are much concerned with this. and areadducing their own remedies. The current favorite is toimpose some form of national service on all universitygraduates. Some think. like the Chinese. that it should hedone before university entrance. .; that it must be manualwork. with pref:rence for farming. This is hard on thosedisciplines. like music or mathematics. where an interruptionof intellectual excitement may hamper intellectual growth.Other governments prefer service after graduation and mayhe content that the graduate then practise his profession.whatever it may be. Some form of national service mayindeed be the only way of getting leachers and professionalsto work in the isolation of rural areas. Whether it alsoachieves the object of giving the graduate a greater socialconscience. I do not know.

The traditional approach of the university to its ink' indeveloping the social conscience is to emphasize the value ofteaching the humanities and the social sciences to allstudents. because these are the subjects where the greatproblems of man's relationship to man have been intensivelydebated over three thousand years. The Americans,cans, recog-filing that most of their 40 percent do no, have a middleclass or professional family background, make these subjectscompulsory for all their students. I shall therefore leave thistopic by crystallizing it in the following questions: should an1.1)C university require all its undergraduates to take somecourses in the humanities and social sciences? How wouldthis indoctrination. which normally emphasizes the demo-cratic values and independence of mind. fit into the politicalframework which LIX's seem to be adopting? And is it reallypossible to teach to 20 year olds in college basic ethics which

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they should have learned in secondary school at 15 or athome at I'?

,irt. and the t'ttirercitt.

Now turn to aesthetics, where the solutions are a little easier.Universities have not prescribed music or literature orpainting or other arts as compulsory subjects of study. Butgood universities have always promoted those activities, andtried to make them part of the students' environment:whether by maintaining concert halls and peiformances,theaters, art galleries and the like on the ordinary budget ofthe university or also by subsidizing the students' ownsocieties for the enjoyment of the arts.

Unfortunately our universities tend to be particularlybarren in these respects. This is mainly because the arts areth special interest of the middle and upper ciasses, and mostof our students do not have such backgrounds. By contrast.today there are relatively few working-class students in theEnglish universities. English students arrive from homeswhere they have been introduced to the arts at an early age,and from secondary schools which have made some effort inthese directions. Most I DC students on the other hand comefrom homes which do not have a :)ook, and the parents of alarge proportion arc illiterate. However, we know what ouruniversities have to do: our chief problem is how to persuadeour Senates and Councils to allocate more money foraesthetic activities, at the expense of departmental budgets.

1.1)Cs have, however, a problem which most developedcountries escape, namely, disagreement as to what culture isto transmitted. Western universities at home have nodoubt that their task is to promote Western music. Westernpainting, Western literature, and so on. As the Westernuniversity spread into India. I 15 years ago, it also assumedthat it should promote Western culture in India. althoughIndia has its own superb traditions of music, painting,

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sculpture. architecture and so on. A similar assumption inother continents has produced a violent reaction, and noweverywhere LIX's emphasize the desirability of teaching anddeveloping their own artistic traditions.

This is easier in some places than in others. My owr. WestIndies, for instance, has no aesthetic traditions of its own, theoriginal inhabitants. the Arawaks, having died out 300 yearsago. We have, of course, since then developed a popularmusic of our own, but when it comes to classical styles,whether in dancing, music, painting or theater. our aestheticbackground includes large elements from Western Europe andIndia. with trace elements from China and various parts ofAfrica. Our most aggressive spokesmen demand that weshould reject everything except what comes from Africa, andstudents have, for example, gone so far as to disrupt aperformance of Mozart on our university campus, claimingthat "Mozart is not a part of our culture. What line is theuniversit% to take in such circuinstanee?

My own prejudice is simple: I think that the whole humanchievement, whatever its geogaphy, is part of the heritageof each one of us. wherever he may be. and that the"cultured gentleman" who neglects the opportunity ofbenefiting from all nationalities of aesthetic experience is thepoorer for doing so. However. I do not want to answerquestions about the directions in which each country shoulddevelop its arts, beyond suggesting that variety is the spice oflife. I want only to emphasize that the university which doesnot devote substantial sums to these purposes is neglectingone of its more important obligations.

nitemmaN of Mural Seiciefiec

Now, when one is talking about culture. whether aestheticsor social relations. LIX's have an additional complication:namely the fact that, especially in Africa and Asia. our

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countries are not homogeneous. but are deeply divided byrace. religion. language. or tribe. Our political scientists usedto think that the basic political division in all societies isbetween the haves and the have-nots. Bitter experience hasshown that in Our countries, as seen by our own politicians.this "vertical" division has trivial political significance whencompared with the "horizontal'. rifts.

is true that even in European societies some demand ismade to preserve and dignify a separate working-class culture.or various regional. folk, or immigrant cultures: but mostAnglo-American universities do not take this seriously: evenseparate dormitories for women are disappearing, let alonethe cultivation of "feminine interests.")

In nineteenth century England, the University of Londonled the way in creating the tradition that the horizontaldifferences do not matter within the university walls, and inthis was ultimately followed by Oxford and Cambridge andthe others. This is a recent and insecure tradition, which hasnot easily taken root in LIK.s. Instead. our universities aresubjected to one of two pressures. The first is to haveseparate universities for different racial, tribal, or religiousgroups. Our university spokesmen have always resisted this.asserting that the communities will quarrel less if their youngpeople are educated together. But even when this point isconceded. we are faced with the tendency of the students tosegregate themselves within the university, just as blackstudents in the United States, having clamored for admissioninto white universities, are now demanding separate curricula.teachers. halls of residence. and recreation facilities.

The other pressure on us. where there is only oneuniversity, is to impose quotas. for each race or what youwill. This we have resisted even more vigorously, on theground that it is wrong to exclude a well-qualified applicantof race A in order to admit a less-qualified applicant of race

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B; our attitude is rather that there should he enough placesfor all who qualify. This is not. however, so simple, evenleaving aside the fact that one may not be able to affordenough places for all who qualify. It is simple enough if allthe students have equal opportunities to prepare foradmission: then quotas are needed only where it is necessaryto combat prejudice. such as that against admitting women tomedical schools, or tribal favoritism of various kinds. But it isalso a fact that our basic principle that the prizes shouldgo to those who win in competitive tests is not alwaysapplicable in plural societies. One's ability to pass thecompetitive tests depends not only on innate intelligence. butalso on family and social background. If the appropriatebackground is already monopolized by members of anothergroup, the competitive test serves only to solidify an existingsocial structure, in which racial etc. inequality is embedded.One cannot break this vicious circle except by insisting onquotas reserved to the underprivileged.

I have said that it is part of our tradition to resist pressuresfor separate treatment, but where these matters are feltkeenly. we are not likely to succeed.

One's attitude toward these matters depends on what onethinks to be the future of plural societies. Pessimists, readinglargely from history. assert that they have no future. Sooneror later one group will become dominant economically andpolitically, and will suppress the religion, language, andculture of all the others. thus enforcing homogeneity withinthe borders of ale nation-state. Others think that thebitterness of these di%isions is a passing historical phase, andthat just as Protestants and Catholics have learned to tolerateeach other in most of Europe (except the Netherlands,Belgium and the United Kingdom of Great Britain andNorthern Ireland) so also in due course men will wonder thattheir ancestors used to fight each other over questions oflanguage or skin color. If you hole' to this latter view,however great the pressures. you will keep your university as

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open as you can, and will make every eftbrt to cooperateclosely with other universities of different complexion.

Personally I incline to the view that this is a passinghistorical phase. for two reasons. First. the spread of auniversal youth culture. For example. Japan used to be heldup as an example of a country which had absorbed Westernscience and technology without affecting the rest of itstraditions. But Japan is now rapidly Westernizing itself: itsrich are buying up and grossly inflating the prices of Frenchwine tto my great disgust) and European painting andsculpture and other treasures: and its young are modellingthemselves upon the young people of California. whose dress,drugs, music. dances, religions and attitudes toward parentsand teachers now set the fashion for young people through-out the rest of the world. If the young of all tribes makethemselves a common culture, then all other cultures will die

Out,

Even more important is an element which derives fromwhat the universities themselves are doing. The graduates weall turn out are of a single pattern. quite different from thatof their parents: more logical. scientific, open-minded. withfewer allegiances and a different set of superstitions: essen-tially. all children of the French Enlightenment. Our productis managing the world, whether in the public or the privatesectors. A Russian physicist, an American physicist. an Indianor a Nigerian physicist. have more in common with eachother. whether in outlook or in life style. than any of thesehas with a bus conductor from his Own country. Theuniversity is :ducating a middle class which is homogeneousthroughout the world, and which, within any country, mustultimately scoff at the harriers which are now so divisive. Isthis not why our various brands of separatists are sovociferous in denouncing "middle class values "? I may hewrong: there k. no lack of highly educated racists. But if I amright, then nothing is more important than for us to keep our

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universities as tree from sectional division as our politicalbosses will permit.

The University as the Trainer of Skills

One has to begin by recognizing the revolt in some studentquarters against the university as a place for "training fodderfor capitalist employers." This is largely :m Americanphenomenon. When 40 percent of the age cohort is in

college, it is inevitable that what most of them do there willhave little hearing on the jobs they ultimately get. Hence theuniversity is not for them a place for training. It is a place forspending four years as enjoyably as one can: choosing onlysuch subjects as interest one, and abandoning them as soon asone reaches into fundamental theories or models whichdemand too much intellectual exercise: skipping exams, or atleast examination grades. The college is seen as a youngpeople's [den. which they may regulate as they please.without interference from adults. whose only duty is to paythe bilk. The advantage to the adults is that the young areshut away in institutions while they grow up. especially astheir preference fo, inelegance offends our sense that formranks equally with substance. It is also thought (butincorrectly E that to keep them off the labor market reducesunemployment. I need hardly add that the number of seriousAmerican students is greater than it ever was: all that hashappened is that the non-serious have multiplied even faster.and have become shamelessly strident.

Uchoes of this disturbance are heard in our LD( uni-versities. since. as I have remarked. everything that starts inCalifornia ultimately comes to all of us. It has some relevanceto overpopulated 1.1X. universities, such as those of India.where the struggle between the students and their universitieshas already had such devastating effects on higher education.But in Africa and the Caribbean. where the demand fortrained graduates still exceeds the supply, hardly any serious

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person doubts that one of the principal functions of theuniversity is to train the middle class for the jobs it has to do.This attitude is fortified by the fact that the cost per studentis such a large multiple of national income per head; thoughthis would not matter so much if students were paying thecost of their education out of loans, as they should be, sinceone could then provide all the places for which there wasdemand.

Now come to the perennial question of which skills are fitto he taught in a university and which are not. Thetraditional an.iwer is that the university skills are only thosewhich have a major intellectual content.

In practice. however, our universities are asked to teach (orto supervise other schools which teach) many skills which donot pass this traditional test, for two reasons.

The first is administrative capacity. LIX's are short ofadministrative talent; we have reached a stage of moderniza-tion where we have learned the tricks of managing things andideas (science, power stations. open heart surgery. pianos)but not the tricks of managing people. So when you get auniversity with a good Vice-Chancellor. a good Registrar anda good Bursar, you ask them to take responsibility for asmuch postsecondary education as they will swallow (medicaltechnologists, agricultural assistants, primary school teachers,technical institutes, etc.). This makes sense if the universitydoes indeed have a first-class administration; but when it hasnot (as is more often the case in LDCs) it is easilyoverburdened.

The second reason for trying to bring as much post-secondary education as possible under the wing of theuniversity is t give this kind of training social status andintellectual preAig,.. Any ambitious student who gets good 0'Levels wants to take a university degree. Also people with

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Faced with these problems I have never been able to gethot under the collar about what is properly or not properly auniversity subject. I am even willing to accept mortuaryscience, which you can study in such highly respectableAmerican institutions as the University of Minnesota. WayneState University and Temple University. Each communityshould settle such issues in accordance with its circumstances.

A much more serious problem is that of the number to betrained. This depends first on the structure of the economy.The biggest user of graduates is the services sector, followedby industry and mining, and lastly by agriculture. Sinceservices employ more than 50 percent of the labor force inthe USA. and agriculture only about 5 percent. the demandfor graduates is enormous, and anything less than 20 percentof the age cohort would produce a serious shortage. Whereasin LIX's. where agriculture employs half the labor force ormore, even I or 2 percent of the cohort can produce a glut ofgraduates.

Apart from structure, the economy's capacity to absorbgraduates depends also on their salaries, relative to per capitanational income. This ratio is very much higher than indeveloped countries, making the cost of services too high forthe economy to afford as much as it needs. As educatednumbers increase, the ratio falls and absorptive capacityautomatically increases. so the way to create demand is to

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flood the market: but this is a painful and politicallydangerous process.

Most LIX' universities admit too many undergraduates,and then have high dropout rates (not to speak of thosewhich have too many students, but are prevented by theirgovernments from failing more than x percent). This relatesto the desirability of giving other postsecondary schools ahigher status, and deflecting more students there. Anotherissue is the desirability of establishing community colleges ofa comprehensive kind, offering .- or 3-year courses from 0'Level in both technical and academic subjects, so that onlythe tested move on into the university. This would mean thatthe university could raise its admission level. and take fewerstudents.

Universities try to insist on determining for themselveswhat their entrance level should he, but this position ishardly tenable. The university has to relate to othereducational institutions. For example. rural secondaryschools have difficulty in attracting and holding the kind ofteachers required for sixth fotms, so it'. in the absence ofcommunity colleges. the university insists on entrance only atA' Level, it is discriminating against half the secondary schoolpopulation. On these matters university senates tend to bereactionary., so inevitably the government, which pays thebill, will want to have a say in determining universityentrance levels. And this in turn will react on the demand forstudent places.

Besides the total number of students. there is the questionof the relative numbers in different subjects. Usually thereare not enough in mathematics or the scientific professions,while there are too many in social sciences (especially the"soft social sciences) and in law. Humanities also tend to bestarved, relative to the need for secondary school teachers.

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Here again the government may he expected to take ahand, by fixing maximum quotas for social science and forlaw. It is true that the bask solutions are rather to teachmore and better science and mathematics in the secondaryschools. and also for the government in its own salarystructures to pay more for graduates in the subjects which arein short supply. A quota probably does not help much indeflecting students toward the highly scientific subjects, butat least it cuts down on the cost of producing a lot of lowgrade social "scientists** and may also push some studentstoward the more practical kinds of training which they nowavoid.

Universities claim autonomy in determining what subjectsthey will teach. but they seldom deserve it. Senates arereactionary, and are slow to admit new subjects even of ahighly scientific nature. LIV governments are everywhereinvolved in deciding what subjects shall he taught, at theirexpense. and this is inevitable.

(I have not asked whether our professionals are too highlytrained: the answer is that we need all sorts.)

The University on the Frontiers of Knowledge

To advance the frontiers of knowledge is rather a recentfunction of universities: knowledge used to he advancedrather by gentlemen scholars outside the universities. Nowa-days, though, all the best universities claim that the advance-ment of knowledge is their pride and joy. From this itfollows that they must hire only staff with first-class creativeminds. use them in teaching only for 8 to 10 hours a week,enforce "publish or perkh However, the number offirst-class creative minds is small: they get better jobsatisfaction working in the well-equipped laboratories andlibraries of U.S. institutions (not to speak of better pay).. and

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frequently don't much care for teaching undergraduates. So

many of our LIK universities, clinging to the research idealand its corollaries, get the worst of both worlds: they have topay salaries competitive, with Oxford and Cambridge. and tolimit teaching hours, without getting much creativity for themoney.

This is a British trap: the United States is not caught in it.The United States has 1.500 degree-granting institutions, ofwhich less than a hundred expect to advance the frontiers ofknowledge. The rest hire teachers at lower salaries and workthem 20 to 25 hours a week. The 100 or so are supplementedby a great many research institutions, public and private.which have no students, or have only graduate students. Indiais travelling the same way. The money now goes increasinglyinto wholly postgraduate institutions, like the new JahawarlalNehru University. or into research institutes which have noteaching function.

At the University of the West Indies. I became convincedthat we had started on the wrong track in adopting theEnglish pattern. We would have done better to have had twoseparate institutions: one offering undergraduate degrec:;, andthe other concentrating on graduate and professional studies.They would have had two entirely different staffs. withdifferent pay. different teaching loads, and different objec-tives. The cost per undergraduate place in our university is

much too high in relation to per capita national income, andwould he smaller if we had started from more appropriatestaffIstu&nt ratios and from salary scales more closely akinto those of civil servants.

The current situation in most of our countries is nottenable. Our governments are beginning to see through thepretense that we are advancing the frontiers of knowledge(some staff do, of course. but not enough of them for themoney I. and the unruly behavior of our undergraduate

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students has not increased our popularity with the public. Iexpect a shift of government emphasis away from universityresearch toward the establishment of separate researchinstitutes: these latter, I would hope, would have provisionfor graduate students. since I agree that the skepticism of thegood student spurs the teacher toward a clearer under-standing of his own thesis.

I am not arguing that universities should not do research,or that research institutes should not be under the sponsor-ship of universities. My sole point is that as the number ofstudents increases, we should restrict the number of research-dominated universities and increase the proportion ofessentiall teaching institutions. on the American rather thanthe British pattern, which is simply too expensive for us.

The t Titi% ersi ;es a Service Agent*);

When one a university has started in a new community. itscollection of relatively high-powered people can make anenormous contribution outside their walk, and are normallyexpected to do so. They create scientific societies embracingpracticing professionals: they serve on public committees:ac,:ept offices of various kinds; and serve as consultants tothe private sector as well as to governments. More formally.the university organiies extramural teaching. and perhapsschool examinations. It sponsors concerts. lectures. exhibi-tions and sporting spectacles. which it opens to the public.Well-endowed private universities in the United States arenow expected to spend on improving their neighborhoods,even to the point of slum clearance: but universities on thepublic payroll escape this imposition.

Performance of functions for the whole community,financed from the public treasury. involves some element ofpolitical neutrality. It is inappropriate for your one and only

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heart surgeon to he a prominent member of same politicalparty, since members of other parties may tear that his knifemay inadvertently slip when he performs for them. It is

equally inappropriate for your one and only professor ofeconomics, whose salary is paid by all, so to conduct himselfthat he has only the confidence of and is consulted only bythe Chamber of Commerce. or the trade unions, or thegovernment or the opposition. Such conduct does not matterin a developed country where professors are two a penny andavailable in every hue. But in our countries with oneuniversity only, or only one per province, the politicalprofessor fails in his duty as a public servant.

Some of our professors have gone to the limit of the(+noxious. We have professors who are leaders of politicalparties Leven the (Alicia, leader of the opposition in Parlia-ment and who publish political tracts which are way belownorma; intellectual standards. Some see their salaries andtheir eight -hour week merely as a means of financial supportfor their political activities, doing no research to justify theirpay. Sonic LEX' universities are sanctuaries for subversivemovements pledged to overthrow society by violence. All ofthis k defended in the name of academic freedom.

Of course our governments retaliate. if public funds aregoing to he used to sup' ort political activity, they wish tochoose the politicians. So the right of the university tochoose its own teachers is challenged, and the governmentseeks a hand. Actually this right, which Anglo-Americanuniversities see as fundamental to their autonomy. is by nomeans universal; it is quite common for those who put up themoney. whether it he the state or the church or the privatebenefactor. to insist on the right to veto teaching appoint-ments. In France. university teachers are appointed by theMinister. Universities on the public payroll may be permittedto exercise autonomy of appointment if they keep out of

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politics: if they become havens for political activity theymust not be surprised if the politicians take Over theappointment of their staffs.

This is not a simple matter. I would like to see ourprofessors practice both less party politics and also moreparticipation in political life.

As for the first half. I think that in an LEW with only oneuniversity per province, professors in publicly financeduniv:rsitics should not identify themselves with politicalparties. and should even try to make it clear that their adviceis available to clients of all religions. languages. or tribes. Irecognize that this is a limitation on academic freedom, astraditionally understood in British and American privateuniversities. Academic freedom, however, has two parts. Themore important part. which I fully accept. is the right. orrather the duty. of the academic to publish the consideredresults of research. study, or reflection without regard totheir effect on existing interests or opinions. On this wecannot compromise without embedding hypocrisy at ourcore. The lesser part of academic freedom, which I wouldlimit in the I.lefore-mentioned circumstances, is the right toparticipate in party politics. This limitation would putprofessors into the same category as civil servants, which iswhat they essentially are in these circumstances. Academicfreedom in this latter sense is of recent vintage and narrowgeographical ex ten t

At the same time I should like to see professors partici-pating more freely in debates on public issues than they nowdo in most of the third world. Good government depends onthe existence of a well-informed and articulate publicopinion: and the teachers in the university, with their freetime for study and research, are better placed than almostany other group to raise the level of public discussion bycommunicating information and criticism, from a non-

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political party standpoint. We do not get as much of this inLDCs as we need, because most of our politicians do notwant an independent public opinion: their motto is that hewho is not with me is against me." Universities should insiston this right (nay. duty) of free comment. but will win andhold it only insofar as they scrupulously steer clear of partyentanglements.

I should emphasize that my image of the LIX' professor asvoluntarily non-partisan. yet active in public affairs, appliesonly to countries which are trying to maintain a democraticframework, including political opposition. The professor isnot needed in party politics when there are plenty of otherpeople for that role. My prescription could not work in asociety where opposition is suppressed. In such a societysome professors who feel very strongly about governmentwrongdoing will inevitably become involved in organizedanti-government activity, as will some of their students. Thefreedom and neutrality of a university can he maintainedonly in societies with a democratic atmosphere: in oppressivesocieties the freedom of the university almost alwaysdisappears in conflict between its members and the govern-ment. The essence of my point is that even in democraticdeveloping societies,the freedom of the government-financeduniversity depends on its trying to maintain politicalneutrality.

Coda

So far I have spoken only of the obligations of the universityto society, as you asked me to do, and not about theobligations of society to the university. me just sketchthree aspects of this side.

First. recognizing as we do the right of the government toinfringe on university autonomy in so many ways. we areentitled to demand that what it does he done with due care.

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nrq am 1TM! f" rafter proper consultation and advice. The government willnominate to many committees and instituticats affecting theuniversity: its Council: some form of University GrantsCommittee: Appointments committees: the ScientificResearch Council, and others. Let its nominees be men ofsubstance, accustomed to disciplined thought and behavior.Several confrontations have occurred not between the uni-versity and the government. but within the university itseif,between the academic Senate and the government appointeesto the Council.

Second, the university is entitled to financial supportadequate for agreed programs. The university is not entitledto determine by itself either the program or its cost. But oncethe appropriate machinery has agreed on these matters, itsdecisions should be carried out. This has to he said because,alas, some of us have to deal with governments which agreeand promise. but do not eventually pay up.

Third, we need the support of government and society inour efforts to lead students along disciplined paths. Thestudents of these days are confused as to why they are in theuniversity: where supply exceeds demand they are terriblyfrustrated. and worried about jobs: also they live in an erawhere respect for law, authority, and non-violent persuasionis no longer fashionable. So they do thiu which horrifytheir elders from burning down the property to preventingfreedom of speech. University authorities cannot cope unlesstheir attempts to enforce discipline are supported by thegovernment and other responsible opinion, including that ofthe great majority of the student body itself. If not, aminority of students reduces the university to a shambles, ashas already happened in many parts of the world

The university cannot fulfill its obligations to a societywhich does not, in its turn, fulfill its obligations to theuniversity. But to explore this further would outrun mymandate. 24

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International Council for Educational Development

The International Council for Educational DevelopmentICED) is an international non-profit association of persons

with a common concern for the future of education and itsrole in social and economic development.

I(I three major interests are strategies for educationaldevelopment: the modernization and management of systemsof higher education: and the international programs andresponsibilities of higher education. In each area, ICED'spurposes are to identify and analyze major educationalproblems shared by a number of countries, to generate policyrecommendations, and to provide consultation, on request,to international and national organisations.

ICD's activities are directed by James A. Perkins. chiefexecutive officer and chairman of an international board.Philip II. Coombs is vice chairman. The headquarters office isin New York City.

The main support for ICED to date has ,some from the FordFoundation. the International Rank for Reconstruction andDevelopment. UNKT. F. and the Clark Foundation. Twelvenational and international agencies are supporting ICI: D's 18-month study on Higher Education for Developmen:

James A. PerkinsChairman pf the Board

*Philip H. CilonduiVice Chairman of the Board

Abbas M. AmmarFormer Deputy Director-ceneralInternational tabour OfficeGeneva, %surer lam'

Fite Ashby (Lord Ashby of Brandon)Master of Clare CollegeCambridge. England

Vincent M. Barnett. JrJames Phinney HaslerProfessor of Flours andPublic AffairsWilliams CollegeWrItionstoun, Ma....i.husett

*Ernest L. BoyerChancellorState University of New harkAlbany. New York

Harlan ClevelandDirector"Aspen Program inInternational AffairsPrinceton. New Jersey

Ricardo Die? thiehleitnerDirectorEducation and InternationalProgramsFundacion General MediterraneaMadrid. Spain

Alvin C. E unchPresidentAcademy for FdueationalDevelopmentNew York, New York

Edward K. HamiltonPresidentGnffenhagen-Kroeger, Inc.San Firancisco, California

BEST COPY AVAILABLEBOARD OF TRUSTEES

Felipe IlerreraUniversidad CatolicaUniversrdad de (lidoSantiago. Chile

Coordinator GeneralFCIEL ProgramRio de Janeiro, Brazil

"[omen HusenProfessor of Internationalduatt ion

my of StockholmStOChelm. Sweden

'Lady Barbara Ward JacksonPresidentInternational Institute forF nvironmental AffairsLondon, England

Henri JanneLe President du College

&rent ofInstitut de Sociologic.tiroversite Fibre de BruxellesBrussels, Belgium

(lark KerrChairmanCarnegie Council on PolicyStudies in Higher EducationBerkeley, California

Max KohnstammPresidentFuropean University InstituteFlorence, Italy

Peter E. KroghDeanSchool of foreign ServiceGeorgetown UniversityWashinFon, D.C.

Alex A. 1:-aptingVice-ChancellorUniversity of Ghanalawn. Ghana

Hens Lew-sinkFormer Minister ofI- ducat ion and ScienceKarlsruhe, West Germany

Sol M. LanowitzCoudert BrothersWashington, D.C.

Robert S. McNamaraPresidentInternational Bank forReconstruction andDevelopmentWashington. D.C.

Martin MeyersonPresidentUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia. Pennsylvania

Wino NagaiMemberEditorial BoardThe Asahr-Shimbun PressTokyo. Japan

Affonso Ot.vmpo London°PresidentFondacitin rvara elDessarr Alia IndustrialCali, Colombia

Paola Coppola PrgnatelliProfessor of ArchitecturalDesignUniversity of RomeRome. Italy

Joseph F. SlaterPresidentAspen Institute forHumanistic StudiesNew York, New York

Jan SyczepanskiDirectorInstytut FilozofiiPolska Akademia 1.!wakWarsaw. Poland

Puey UngphakorrFaculty of EconomicsThammasat UniversityBangkok. Thailand

Member of the Executive Committee*Fffect we September 1.1974