Madam, - It is clear that the term "knowledge economy" as it applies to universities has a jarring effect on some people. I refer to the article by Prof Tom Begley, dean of the UCD Business Schools (Opinion, September 19th), and to Prof Mary Gallagher's reply to it (Letters, September 24th).
Prof Begley's article makes the point that our universities must become world class and must pay corresponding salaries to acquire "brain power", otherwise we will languish in the second division. It implies that having top business schools in particular is essential in order to forge ahead economically.
No doubt the US has many of the top business schools in the world. Yet despite all this talent, US banks and lending institutions have precipitated the greatest financial collapse since the crash of 1929 and as yet few would dare predict the eventual outcome.
It seems that either nobody saw this coming or else the voices were too weak for the banks to take any notice. Either way the crisis calls for more humility than the preening, self-regarding tenor of Prof Begley's article would be prepared to admit.
The world does need knowledge, but it needs wisdom far more; and this is not connected to knowledge alone. In the new "knowledge economy", universities are expected to be the handservant of the world of business and the entrepreneur, and are valued in terms of their "brain power"; otherwise they are regarded as be second division. With this kind of attitude I suggest that wisdom is less likely to be found in such institutions than in the traditional universities as we know them.
I would argue further that the contribution of universities to the state is far wider and more complex than the narrow vision predicated by the "knowledge economy". - Yours, etc,
DAVID WALSH,
Rockfield,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.