A Critique of University Marketing

I bookmarked a story in the Times Higher a couple of weeks ago, with the intention of doing a post about it, and then promptly forgot. Such is the effect of old age. Anyway the story is about the the fact that Lancaster University is undertaking a disciplinary investigation into one of its staff, Mike Ryder, who wrote a blog post of his own with the title Why are universities so bad at marketing? I’ve linked to it in order to boost its readership. He’s also done a video with the same title: The point of me repeating this here is twofold. The first is to point out that investigating an academic for daring to express an opinion is disgraceful, contrary to the principles of academic freedom, and symptomatic of the authoritarian attitude that pervades the modern university system. The second point concerns my own institution, Maynooth University in Ireland. I know I have, in the past been critical of many aspects of this University’s governance, but in this respect I give credit where it…