Sir, – I have never met Tom Dunne nor have I read New Managerialism in Education: Commercialization, Carelessness and Gender by Lynch, Grummell and Devine reviewed by Dunne (Weekend Review, June 1st). However, I totally agree with almost everything he writes about third-level education in Ireland. As he quite rightly says "Irish education is being turned into a commodity, designed to suit market forces, rather than a transformative experience for the individual that also has incalculable social – and economic – value".
The only disagreement I have with Dunne is that unfortunately Trinity College, while maintaining its place in world rankings, is slowly but surely following the managerial model and is in danger of losing its academic and educational values. This would be a tragedy for Ireland and Trinity College. – Yours, etc,
SHAUN McCANN,
Hon FTCD, Prof Emeritus of
Haematology and Academic
Medicine, St James’s
Hospital & Trinity College
Dublin,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – In reviewing Lynch et al's New Managerialism in Education, Tom Dunne articulates a truth that must be heeded: neo-liberalism is laying waste our universities. (It tells its own sad tale about the state of academic freedom in Ireland that the task of saying so is largely left to retired professors.)
In his review, Dunne urges academics to interrogate the destructive logic of managerialism. But one fearless exposé of its depredations already exists, Mary Gallagher's Academic Armageddon: An Irish Requiem for Higher Education. In striking confirmation of Dunne's characterisation of The Irish Times as a cheerleader for neo-liberalism, her vital contribution to this urgently needed debate has yet to be reviewed in your pages. – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA PALMER,
Department of English,
King’s College,
London,
England.