Academic irrationality: the university and the tyrannies of time, metrics, and competitiveness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26512/patryter.v8i15.55915Keywords:
Irrationality. counter-rationality. tyranny of time. metrics. competitiveness.Abstract
The article addresses the irrationalities of the current university management model. It highlights how the pursuit of more organization, efficiency, and productivity, often based on rationalization principles, results in irrationalities: individualism, dehumanization, dishonesty, superficiality, loss of quality, and increased academic stress. Through a dialogue with the literature on the university crisis and reflections on the author’s experiences as an academic in different countries, the article explores three tyrannies that dominate contemporary academia: time, metrics, and competitiveness, and questions how these pressures distort the contestatory, collaborative, and reflective essence of the university. Finally, it proposes an analysis of academic counter-rationalities as forms of resistance that arise in response to this hegemonic model, suggesting alternatives that question the structural nature of the problem and stimulate critical thinking.
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