Universities: British Indian Africanby Eric Ashby

Universities: British Indian African by Eric AshbyReview by: H. L. B. MoodyBritish Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Jun., 1968), pp. 203-206Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Society for Educational StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3118462 .

Accessed: 24/06/2014 19:47

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and Society for Educational Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserveand extend access to British Journal of Educational Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.156 on Tue, 24 Jun 2014 19:47:45 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=taylorfrancis

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ses

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3118462?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Reviews

Universities: British Indian African. By Sir Eric Ashby. Pp. 558. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1966. 84s.

It was in 1928 that Abraham Flexner, disturbed by the indiscriminate expansion of American universities, delivered his series of lectures at Oxford (England), which were published two years later as Universities American English and German. This book, described by the author of our present study as 'a classic in the literature of academe', acknowledges its indebtedness to John Henry Newman and the grand old concept of a liberal education pro- vided by a university dedicated to scholarship, the pursuit of truth, the application of intelligence to the solving of problems, remaining disengaged from the utilitarian routines of the world. It is a book which might well be brought out again and pondered over by those engaged in university-building, for it contains passages of finely-conceived, meticulously expressed reflection on the characteristic role of that dangerously prestige-collecting institution, and utters many shrewd warnings, as, for example, the following, which has notable contemporary relevance:

'Universities are complex and organic institutions: their arms may be sound while both legs may be broken. They may lag fundamentally, even while superficially catering to whim or fashion; they may lag fundamentally at the very moment when at this or that point they are as expert as news- papers or politicians in catching the current breeze' (p. 6).

By formulating his title in the same word pattern as Flexner, Sir Eric Ashby seems to claim a similar standing for his latest volume. His general approach is, on the other hand, almost diametrically opposed to Flexner's, for he is much concerned with the 're-thinking' which appears to be necessary if modern universities (the book is addressed fairly specifically to Africa) are to meet the needs of the contemporary situation and the demands that are made upon them. It is, he tells us, a dozen years since, turning his attention from technology and academics, he came prominently into the field of higher education overseas, and the present study, which has been under way since 196I, is intended to 'examine the assumptions' on which overseas universities should be established more systematically than there was time to do in the great rush to cope with practical problems ('finance, building pro- grammes, expansion, administration, the spectrum of studies', p. ix).

In the course of this study Sir Eric has had the assistance of Dr. Mary Anderson, a trained historical research worker, and the present volume therefore contains an elaborate network of references, quotations-some documents reproduced in toto- which range from the earliest proposals for the institution of higher education 'in the colonies', through the various Reports and Memoranda on the subject, and includes a good deal of official and private correspondence, a useful bibliography, and so on. All this has its use and its interest: the amazing delays which occurred in the development of institutions of higher education as proposals were bandied back and forwards sluggishly between educationists and colonial administrators will certainly provide more ammunition for those who wish to attack colonialism; while the attitude of the Bishop of Sierra Leone to the proposals put forward in 1875 by Professor Edward Blyden, and supported by the Governor, John

203



REVIEWS

Pope-Hennessey, illustrate an extremely quaint and cautious, not to say labour-saving, corner of the Anglican episcopacy.

The plan of the book is systematic. After briefly surveying the establishment of universities in Britain, the authors go on to describe the Indian universities of the nineteenth century, which serve as an example of hasty, ill-conceived effort, against which the attempts of British, African (and latterly American) academics to establish the 'Asquith Colleges', in special relationship with London University, seem more reasonable. The greater part of the book is concerned with tracing the development of thought, the development of policy leAding to their establishment, and it concludes with fairly brief sketches of a selection of these universities now that they are available for observation, and, for good measure, a quick look at some other African universities not established upon the British pattern (the 'Bantu Colleges', Haile Selassie in Ethiopia, Louvanium in the Congo, and Dakar). The book is thus abundantly equipped with information, and there is useful documentation of some of the more dramatic crises in university government in Africa, such as the interference by Nkwame Nkruma in Ghana, especially during the Vice-Chancellorship of Conor Cruise O'Brien; the conflict between Senate and Council at Lagos-though nothing about the disputed Registrarship at Ibadan. The authors make no attempt to be dogmatic and seem quite ready to digest 'the lessons of experience' and to lend a ready ear to the representations which have been made from all quarters whenever they have visited Africa.

Has the expansion of higher education been impulsive, premature? Sir Eric certainly has no patience with the wet-blankets who put this question. To the extent that one can argue, or think validly, in metaphors, he urges the replacement of the 'pyramid' analogy, which suggests that the higher layers of anything can only be laid upon solid, broad foundations, by the 'volcano' image, apparently first introduced in a sub-committee in 1940-

'the volcano "built up its cone at all stages at once" and had "a spontaneity about it altogether lacking in a pyramid built of blood and tears"' (p. 204).

Assuming that universities overseas have to be, our author readily endorses a number of corollaries, not all of which I venture to predict will stand the test of time. He is quite ready to relax standards of admission to the School Certificate level-thus conflicting with the many authorities working to build up secondary school Sixth Form and Higher Certificate courses. He continues to emphasize the desirability of general as opposed to special honours courses (on the lines of the Robbins Report), though I believe a growing body of opinion is coming to the view that the distinctive qualities which African students need to acquire from their higher education do not come from grappling superficially with a wide spread of information. He still supports the Asquith recommendation of providing residence on campus for all university students in terms which I think imply unfortunate assumptions of privilege:

'It was a wise recommendation for it is in any case a shock for an African or an Asian to be swept suddenly into the stream of European higher education, and it would be intolerable for him to have to reconcile this with his daily life among his own people. . . ' (p. 217).

A critical issue in overseas university life is of course the nature of the ultimate authority in each university, and Sir Eric faces the fact, after some attention to forms of written constitution which might safeguard academic freedom, that in the present atmosphere of government by coup d'6tat, the only

204



REVIEWS

guarantee of continuity is to achieve as mutually-respectful a relationship as possible with the political authorities, and to hope to 'educate our masters' into the benefits which may be expected by leaving academics to think and act for themselves. Hence the great, and popular, point which he stresses, that universities must no longer think of themselves as having a responsibility alone to 'the pursuit of truth', but 'the pursuit of truth through teaching and research in the service of man' (p. 228). This is the line of thought which leads Sir Eric to have another, more respectful look at Dr. Azikwe's self styled 'University of Nigeria' and more generally at the American land-grant university, upon which Nsukka was based, with its elaborate array of vocational studies and extension services. At this point one might merely suggest the need for reflection about what is really 'in the service of man' at more than the one level which is obviously implied here.

It was back in I964 that Sir Eric Ashby gave an interim account of his investigations and reflections on these problems in the Godkin lectures at Harvard which were published by the Oxford University Press under the title African Universities and Western Tradition. This seemed, and still seems, well worth looking at. It is a fresh, compact, and cogent survey of the problems involved, and its sensitive peroration particularly is an excellent vindica- tion of the contention that a trained, intelligent outsider can often grasp the essential of a problem better than those who are personally and pro- fessionally involved in it. In comparison with that slim volume, the present massive work seems disappointing. Apart from the extensive apparatus of scholarship, it adds essentially little to the earlier book, and for the most part is written in the dead impersonal language found in duller official reports, enshrining far too many statements of the obvious and what might be called 'publishers-blurb-value judgements'-as a dip into almost any page illus- trates. For example:

'Public opinion in African countries is difficult to assess, but some significance can be attached to discussions in the press and to statements made by political leaders. It can be assumed that in Africa, as elsewhere, both these sources of opinion commonly reflect what sections of the public like to hear . ..' (p. 245)- ' ... Hanns Vischer, who, as director of education, had been a sensitive and effective pioneer of western education in Northern Nigeria' (p. 190). ' . . Tom Mboya, the vigorous and colourful Kenya politician and trade union leader' (p. 266).

Though, in fairness, it is rarely that the language of the book breaks down into such meaningless ambiguities as

' . .. the qualification required for an award under ASPAU is a good pass at O-level G.C.E.' (p. 267). Much of the earlier book has been chopped up and re-used in the

present volume, with or without re-writing. The following contrasted passages illustrate something of the retreat from vigour and spontaneity to conventionality which the writing of the 'authorative volume' has involved:

(a) 1964 'The public relations of the University of Cambridge are deplorable. It needs all the immense distinction of its scholars and the irresistible beauty of its buildings to overcome the image created by its complacent public pronouncement, the smug effusions of its dons in the correspondence columns of The Times, and the myths sedulously cultivated by Cambridge novelists and playwrights' (p. 28).

205



REVIEWS

(b) 1966 'It would not be unjust to say that the University of Cambridge has no public relations. But Cambridge has the immense distinction of its scholars and the irresistible beauty of its buildings to overcome the image created by its complacent public announcements, the smug effusions of its dons in the correspondence columns of The Times, and the myths sedulously cultivated by Cambridge novelists and playwrights' (p. 310).

But, to conclude on a more fundamental note, against the most serious criticism of the present volume, the authors have attempted to disarm criticism by describing it in their subtitle as 'a study in the ecology of higher education'-as it were retreating from the consideration of 'basic assumptions' to a description of what is (' Whatever is is right'!). Of what, we need to ask, are the developing countries most in need? It is by now quite obvious that they need to train their own engineers, technologists, doctors, scientists, econo- mists, even business experts, and in fact these are coming along. What recent events have made plain, in the whole of developing Africa, perhaps most of all in Nigeria, is the desperate shortage of leadership, of ideas, of values, and the kind of' character' needed to conceive of policies, to explain them, and to carry them out. It is all very well to take steps for the steady evolution and development of the community, but these are useless unless the factors on which the very survival of the community as a community exists are attended to. It is therefore disappointing in a volume of the size and scope of the one under consideration to find the emphasis is so exclusively on universities following the social needs, as enunciated presumably by politicians and businessmen. Traditionally the university is the institution in a community which might be expected to lead; to formulate the aims, to enunciate the methods, by which social health, let alone social survival, may be secured. 'Within the limits of human foresight,'-it is again Flexner speaking, 'we must see that what we choose is relevant to the needs of the long-term as well as to those of the short-term future.' (Universities American English German, p. 17.) 'There is a persuasive argument,' says Ashby, almost defeated before he has begun, 'that universities are concerned primarily to train students in a style of thinking, not in vocational skills . . . ' (p. 242), but his work is lacking in just those qualities of vision which are most needed at present. Let us of course have the necessary schools of vocational training, whether within the universities or outside them, but let us not overlook the desperate need for the skills of administrative expertise and leadership which can perhaps best be developed in university departments of the humanities: history, philosophy, literature, religion, education; which alone give sufficient insight into the nature of human beings and human society as a basis for the kind of philosophy on which a just, stable, progressive community can be built. And we need not only 'knowledge', but executive ability. (Sandhurst clearly has something valuable to offer, but even the young colonels themselves do not claim that it is enough.) The essential need in African universities, if indeed we are not too late, is to 're-think' the type of training suitable for the very best brains and characters that are available, and to discover how to disseminate their influence through all the other vocational departments and institutions in the hope that some kind of coherent civilization may yet emerge. No thinking about university education which fails to address itself to such problems can claim real contemporary relevance.

H. L. B. MOODY

206



Documents

Universities: British Indian Africanby Eric Ashby