This is a damning indictment, and although I am now outside of academia looking in, I can understand what he is saying. As followers of this blog will know only too well, for years I have been complaining about the decline of scientific integrity, an unwillingness to effectively and knowledgeably scrutinize published research, an obsession with ruling hypotheses and assumptive / validation research, and the prioritising of fanciful narrative over scientific methodology. We have complained about scientific fraud and even invented evidence in recent archaeological research, and have even accused Parker Pearson and his merry band of quarrymen of pulling a scientific hoax on a par with the famous Piltdown skull hoax which kept everybody entertained back in the bad old days. As Barclay and Brophy have so eloquently explained, the abandonment of scientific caution (or the examination of alternative hypotheses in the explanation of examined phenomena) is another huge issue, encouraged by the obsession with column inches in the media and with "media impact." Possibilities are inflated to become probabilities, and probabilities become certainties. Dumbing down on all sides, to the point where academic standards are comprehensively dumped.
It's a pretty dismal scenario, which I shall continue to protest about, while seeking to hold the perpetrators to account.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/sep/08/higher-education-in-the-uk-is-morally-bankrupt-im-taking-my-family-and-my-research-millions-and-im-off
Higher education in the UK is morally bankrupt. I’m taking my family and my research millions, and I’m off
Ulf Schmidt
Prof Ulf Schmidt was director of the Centre for the History of Medicine, Ethics and Medical Humanities at the University of Kent. This month he becomes professor of modern history at Hamburg University. He and his family are leaving the Uk and moving to Germany. His wife is German, and she has been forced to go through the intimidating and demeaning application process for “settled status” — although this was granted, the process was clearly traumatic for the whole family.
Extracts:
"England seems characterised – not unlike the 1930s – by an impassioned anti-intellectualism that seeks simple answers and negates context and complexity. Now a wave of redundancies is snaking its way through the education sector.
"…….Britain’s cherished higher education sector, once the envy of the world, is on the brink of collapse. The humanities were world leading – and still are in many areas. Scholars in English literature, creative writing, the arts, languages, history and philosophy were acclaimed across the globe. But now the sector as a whole is bankrupt, not just financially, but morally. It has lost its integrity and seems unwilling to engage in critical reflection about the causes of this unprecedented malaise.
“……research is taking a massive hit in post-Brexit, post-pandemic Britain. There is good evidence that the exodus of more than 10,000 scholars from Britain’s universities since the referendum continues unabated. Scotland has lost almost 2,500 academics. Countries such as Germany are beneficiaries of this mass migration of intellectual talent. Scholars and their families are voting with their feet. Britain is experiencing a significant “brain drain”. Life is too short to wait until the country has come to its senses is what most Europeans – and many British academics – think.
"Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna and all the other major European cities have not been idle. They know this is a historic opportunity to attract some of the best minds in the world. At least one other German professorship has recently been awarded to a senior academic from Britain. I know scholars from around the UK who admit that the only reason for them to apply for grants is to increase their chances of leaving this sceptred isle.
"The loss will be counted not only in intellectual and cultural capital, but in financial terms as well. Hundreds of millions of pounds will no longer be spent in Britain, but in the capitals of Europe. Thousands of post-docs and doctoral students will no longer flock to British universities to study with experts in their field but move instead to where they can find the best intellectual climate, the best infrastructure and career prospects. Britain’s attractiveness is waning.
"But the ship has sailed. The people (apparently) decided in a referendum to turn their back on Europe and there was no need to ask them again – it was a once-in-a-generation decision. Students and others who had not got up that day to vote later wondered if they should have. They lamented that they had been robbed.
"On the day we learned that my wife’s British citizenship application had been successful, my son broke down in tears. For months he had worried that his mother would be “deported” after ministers – Theresa May, Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd, Brandon Lewis – said that EU citizens could be made to leave. The Brexit decision fundamentally changed our outlook on Britain as an open, welcoming society. It changed our sense of belonging. Trust, that invisible bond that links us to other people, had been broken."
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/sep/08/higher-education-in-the-uk-is-morally-bankrupt-im-taking-my-family-and-my-research-millions-and-im-off
Higher education in the UK is morally bankrupt. I’m taking my family and my research millions, and I’m off
Ulf Schmidt
Prof Ulf Schmidt was director of the Centre for the History of Medicine, Ethics and Medical Humanities at the University of Kent. This month he becomes professor of modern history at Hamburg University. He and his family are leaving the Uk and moving to Germany. His wife is German, and she has been forced to go through the intimidating and demeaning application process for “settled status” — although this was granted, the process was clearly traumatic for the whole family.
Extracts:
"England seems characterised – not unlike the 1930s – by an impassioned anti-intellectualism that seeks simple answers and negates context and complexity. Now a wave of redundancies is snaking its way through the education sector.
"…….Britain’s cherished higher education sector, once the envy of the world, is on the brink of collapse. The humanities were world leading – and still are in many areas. Scholars in English literature, creative writing, the arts, languages, history and philosophy were acclaimed across the globe. But now the sector as a whole is bankrupt, not just financially, but morally. It has lost its integrity and seems unwilling to engage in critical reflection about the causes of this unprecedented malaise.
“……research is taking a massive hit in post-Brexit, post-pandemic Britain. There is good evidence that the exodus of more than 10,000 scholars from Britain’s universities since the referendum continues unabated. Scotland has lost almost 2,500 academics. Countries such as Germany are beneficiaries of this mass migration of intellectual talent. Scholars and their families are voting with their feet. Britain is experiencing a significant “brain drain”. Life is too short to wait until the country has come to its senses is what most Europeans – and many British academics – think.
"Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna and all the other major European cities have not been idle. They know this is a historic opportunity to attract some of the best minds in the world. At least one other German professorship has recently been awarded to a senior academic from Britain. I know scholars from around the UK who admit that the only reason for them to apply for grants is to increase their chances of leaving this sceptred isle.
"The loss will be counted not only in intellectual and cultural capital, but in financial terms as well. Hundreds of millions of pounds will no longer be spent in Britain, but in the capitals of Europe. Thousands of post-docs and doctoral students will no longer flock to British universities to study with experts in their field but move instead to where they can find the best intellectual climate, the best infrastructure and career prospects. Britain’s attractiveness is waning.
"But the ship has sailed. The people (apparently) decided in a referendum to turn their back on Europe and there was no need to ask them again – it was a once-in-a-generation decision. Students and others who had not got up that day to vote later wondered if they should have. They lamented that they had been robbed.
"On the day we learned that my wife’s British citizenship application had been successful, my son broke down in tears. For months he had worried that his mother would be “deported” after ministers – Theresa May, Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd, Brandon Lewis – said that EU citizens could be made to leave. The Brexit decision fundamentally changed our outlook on Britain as an open, welcoming society. It changed our sense of belonging. Trust, that invisible bond that links us to other people, had been broken."
=========================
Parker Pearson and the famous "bluestone monolith recess" at Rhosyfelin, which can only be seen by those fitted with special spectacles....
A reminder:
Gordon J. Barclay & Kenneth Brophy (2020): ‘A veritable chauvinism of prehistory’: nationalist prehistories and the ‘British’ late Neolithic mythos, Archaeological Journal,
DOI: 10.1080/00665983.2020.1769399
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2020/07/bluestones-and-interpretative-inflation.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-origins-of-british-neolithic-mythos.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-politicisation-of-neolithic.html
Thank goodness for our Rector at St James', Trowbridge Parish Church, who always, when delivering a biblical talk, emphasises CONTEXT of the part of the Old or New Testament in how he interprets the essential message conveyed, just as Professor Schmidt insists upon.
ReplyDeleteExtraordinary that you should have to negotiate settled status for Inger - shameful. This government regularly makes me ashamed to have a British passport.
ReplyDeleteAmazingly, Mike Pitts saw fit to write an article based upon Gordon Barclay & Kenny Brophy's influential article Brian refers to here (as well as several other of their articles). Mike Pitts is editor of "British Archaeology" magazine.
ReplyDeleteHis write - up is in the Sept/Oct issue, number 174, and is entitled "WESSEX, ORKNEY AND BREXIT: WHERE ARCHAEOLOGY FAILS".
[Dave sent you a copy, Brian, along with the other article on Sarsen Stonehenge stone provenancing.]
Tony --I that article isn't by Mike Pitts -- it's actually by Barclay and Brophy, summarising their longer article for a popular readership........ we await a Pitts article with interest, if he isn't obsessed with just keeping his powder dry.....
ReplyDeleteYeah, I realised that last night when I re - read it.
ReplyDeleteBut it is in a Section of B.A. headed "Disrupting the Past", and sub - headed "In a world rocked by politics, pollution and pandemic, archaeology faces an unknown future. 'British Archaeology' invites readers to wonder what might change, and how".
So it looks like there is an opportunity for any reader to submit a challenging article for this piece at this precise moment in time, Brian.
The magazine is also running a regular piece by the executive director of the Council for British Archaeology [C.B.A.], Neil Redfern, with similar objectives.
Parker Pearson's approachable "leaning on the virtual garden fence" pose will probably sell millions when retailed on teeshirts in the USA and worldwide. Compare Donald Trump's commemorative Covid 'Hero' Coin, on sale soon at $100 from the off - White House.
ReplyDelete