The Anatomy of the University

A word in explanation of the title—the role of the anatomist today is to define the structure of complex organisms not as an end in itself but to illuminate the significance of structural features in the functioning of the living creature as a whole. He still employs the methods implicit in the name of his discipline—"a cutting-up"—into smaller and smaller pieces, but with the hope that all can be put together again to some effect. We shall examine certain features of the university rather as the anatomist does, likening it to a complex multi-cellular organism, studying the relations and the implied functional interaction of its component parts, bearing in mind that what is sought is the perfection (or otherwise) of the organism as a whole.

We can "anatomise", i.e., cut up, the university community both horizontally and vertically. The horizontal sections separate it into undergraduate students, post-graduate students, academic staff and administrative staff. At one time when the body of knowledge was small and might be embraced by one man in his lifetime, these subdivisions did not make for any disharmony of purpose. The young sat at the feet of the older to learn their art and learn it all.

The exfoliation of science and the accretion and subdivision of the body of knowledge itself, at a constantly accelerating pace, has created the vertically subdivisible university—a university which must be cut into separate faculties, into separate departments within faculties, and even into separate sub-departments. The emphasis has shifted from the conservation and transmission of knowledge to its continued expansion through research. No one can deny the untold material benefits accruing to mankind from this process of specialisation and differentiation within the body of knowledge.

But the process of specialisation as exhibited within the academic staff group has led to some conflict of purpose between this group and the undergraduate. We require the undergraduate to attain a body of knowledge which is still a diminutive replica of the total corpus. The desire of the teacher is still to teach his art and teach all of it that he knows Since the best of his art now is his ability to use the knowledge he has as a page 3 pringboard for expanding knowledge in confined field, his favourite pupils are [unclear: aturally] his post-graduate students—[unclear: hose] who are to be incorporated into [unclear: is] own discipline and assist him in ad[unclear: ancing] it. It is chiefly in tho training [unclear: f] post-graduates in the rigours of a [unclear: particular] discipline that research [unclear: apacity] in the staff is a sine qua non. [unclear: n] a great many disciplines the content [unclear: of] the elementary course, required either [unclear: or] the undergraduates (Stage I) of the [unclear: liscipline] itself or for students studying [unclear: he] discipline as a prerequisite for some [unclear: pecialised] vocation (e.g., medical inter[unclear: nediate] students), is far removed from [unclear: he] field of interest of the teacher who [unclear: s] primarily a specialist. No man can [unclear: erve] two masters, and it seems unlikely [unclear: hat] the same individual can give his [unclear: eart] both to the purveying of the [unclear: lementary] and the wholehearted pursuit [unclear: t] the frontiers of knowledge. Nor can [unclear: he] student care much for those who are [unclear: ittle] concerned for him.

Whatever the causes of failure in [unclear: ndergraduate] instruction (and some [unclear: nay] be laid on the prior preparation in [unclear: be] schools), the conflict of objective [unclear: etween] the Stage I student and the [unclear: esearch] minded staff member must be [unclear: ne] of the elements involved. Merely [unclear: ncreasing] the number of staff so that [unclear: he] pill of undergraduate teaching need [unclear: ot] be swallowed so often by any one [unclear: f] them will not resolve this problem. [unclear: he] motivation of the good elementary [unclear: eacher] and the great scholar or scientist [unclear: nust] be different in most respects. One [unclear: s] a variety of personal service like [unclear: nedical] practice or the priesthood—the [unclear: ther] a devotion to the abstract.

The consequences of the accretion of [unclear: nowledge] and specialisation for the [unclear: ndergraduate] medical course have been [unclear: ealised] and deplored for many years. [unclear: Integration"] of the separate disciplines [unclear: n] a single curriculum is now medical [unclear: education's] number one "catchword", [unclear: iously] repeated by Deans and other ex[unclear: erts] at every international conference. [unclear: nly] in two English speaking schools, [unclear: nd] that recently, has any concerted [unclear: ttempt] at "change" (to avoid the [unclear: mplication] of "reform") been made [unclear: he] more radical is at Western Reserve [unclear: n] Cleveland, the other at the University [unclear: of] Western Australia. That these two [unclear: chools] should have made the attempt [unclear: t] all is due in part to special circum[unclear: tances] (leaving aside the catalytic effect [unclear: of] certain dedicated and enthusiastic [unclear: ndividuals]). In Western Reserve a sub[unclear: tantial] proportion of chairs fell vacant [unclear: nd] were filled at about the same time [unclear: with] comparatively young men who were [unclear: orepared] to co-operate in designing to-[unclear: gether] a new curriculum. Similarly the [unclear: Medical] School at Perth is brand new—[unclear: he] whole professoriate starting off at [unclear: scratch] in the institution. Only under [unclear: these] circumstances apparently is it [unclear: possible] for a group of university dons [unclear: to] find common ground outside their [unclear: particular] departmental interests—[unclear: perhaps] because, being new, their [unclear: ambitions] and interests within their school as such had not yet crystallised and become rigid.

By making a particular discipline the administrative unit and assigning an overwhelming importance to the single-minded devotion to that discipline which the outstanding research worker displayed, the university is risking disintegration in yet another field. The very qualities of vigour and drive for his department, in competing for the limited research funds and best research students, which we expect of the professor, are opposed to modifying clearly seen individual objectives to some less well defined common purpose, and to sacrificing work in library or laboratory, to work across the board-room table or in the staff common room.

If undergraduate teaching is the bane of existence for university staff, administrative chores, committee work and the like are doubly so. The growth of the group of professional administrators within the university reflects not only the increasing size and financial complexity of the institution with the proliferation of dull routine, but it also expresses the readiness of the academic staff to surrender (because of the time it takes) the responsibility to come to reasoned and effective decisions on general policy. The experiment in medical education at Western Reserve was only begun after nearly two years of constant staff committee work. No Dean could possibly have worked out a blueprint for a new course and presented it to the staff for implementation. There are fields in which university policy must be formulated which involve the mutual adjustment of conflicting points of view. These adjustments and compromises can only be achieved by the individuals concerned talking them out. The role of the top administrator is to facilitate this talking out—improve its efficiency by stripping the situaiton of the minutiae so that agreement can be reached on essentials. He cannot be expected, at least in a community of free men, himself to impose the mutual readjustments, and still preserve the morale of his group.

While students see their teachers frankly impatient of or uninterested in the democratic processes of reaching decisions in free assembly, how can they be blamed if when they enter the community at large, they surrender statecraft to the politician and bury their heads in the false security of excellence in their particular vocation.