|
(The request below is for "a statement of
support either for the relevance and quality of the teaching
and the degrees offered, and/or for the research? These should
be addressed to Vice Chancellor Prof Adam Habib and the Dean
of the Commerce, Law and Management Prof Nqosa Mahao, and
copied to Seeraj Mohamed. The relevant emails are: [email protected] From: Nicolas Pons-Vignon
Sorry for
cross-posting – please circulate widely &
strategically Dear friends
and colleagues It is
unfortunately CSID’s turn to come under ideological attack
for having set up and run very successful ‘heterodox’
economics degrees at Wits University, South Africa. I
encourage you to read the message below by my colleague
Lotta and would be grateful if you could write a message of
support, should you disagree with the suggestion by our Head
of School, Prof Judy Backhouse, that we represent a ‘fringe
ideological position’. [at the bottom of this message I
paste a paragraph which lays bare the University’s
perspective on our programme, and heterodox economics more
generally] The situation
is in flux and we could still offer our degrees next year;
this will in part hinge on the support we receive, since the
University is unlikely to change its mind unless it is
flooded by messages contesting the proposed decision to shut
down our courses, or replace them with mainstream
alternatives. Ironically, we have more applicants, after
only 3 years of existence, than any other postgrad
qualification our School… maybe I should add that our
Masters is a core member of the new heterodox EPOG (Economic
Policies in the Age of Globalization –
www.epog.eu) Masters
programme, which would be adversely affected if we closed
down. I attach information on our courses, as well as a
letter by Prof. Ben Fine, our closest collaborator and
supporter.
In
solidarity
Nicolas From: Lotta Takala-Greenish
CSID as a
teaching and research unit is facing a high risk of being
closed down by the University of Witwatersrand. Dear colleagues and friends of CSID, You may be aware that CSID has been
experiencing difficulties in negotiating sufficient teaching
and research support and resources with the University of
WITS, in particular with the School of Economics. The
situation has taken a dive downwards and we are now facing a
very high risk of closure of all of CSID or at best the
termination of all of the Development Theory and Policy
degrees effective from Jan 2014.
Our future operations in teaching and
research are compromised by the cost cutting and
rationalisation that WITS University is in the middle of
implementing. We have been told that it is very likely that
CSID will not be allowed to run the Development Theory and
Policy Masters and Honours degrees in 2014, and that it may
even be necessary to shut down the research operations of CSID
as well. Though CSID have continuously flagged the issues of
insufficient support and academic resources, the risk of
shutdown was only communicated to us at CSID last Tuesday 29th
October. We were hoping for an open and objective discussion
as well as swift resolution of these matters. None of this
seems forthcoming so we have decided to turn to our partners
and allies for their help in highlighting the importance and
relevance of CSID ,and in particular, the importance of the
Development Theory and Policy degrees. Though we are told this is about finances
and rationalisation, we also see this as an attack on
heterodox economics. CSID is a small group of non-tenured,
short-term project funded researchers/lecturers that has been
able to develop arguably high quality teaching and research
with minimal or no institutional support from the School of
Economics. The teaching was set up through a seed fund from
the South African Department of Trade and Industry with
assurances that the University and in particular the Faculty
of Law and Social Sciences and the School of Economics would
support and help develop these further. This was also the
basis for entering into the international Erasmus
Mundus-funded Economic Policies in the Age of Globalisation
Programme. Now these agreements are being questioned or
disregarded in some circles and a proposal has been put
forward that heterodox economics need not exist as a separate
entity, and if such courses need to be offered, then they can
be electives within the core mainstream economics degrees
offered by the School of Economics (and possibly taught by
the tenured mainstream economists at SEBS seeing as jobs at
CSID are also at risk). We at CSID are deeply concerned with these
developments and have been voicing our dissent through the
relevant university channels. This not only comes across as
the squashing of a small and budding heterodox economics group
within a large and dominant orthodox economics department.
This also poses a serious risk to the reputation of WITS and
the relations CSID has with various teaching and research
partners (the EPOG member universities in particular
University of Paris 13, Berlin School of Economics, University
of Torino, Kingston University, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, Seoul National University, Federal University of Rio
de Janeiro, but also the dti, Economic Development Department,
Trade and Industrial Policy Strategy and other South African
partners). We at CSID feel shocked and saddened by these
potential institutional implications as well as the
implications for the past, present and future students. We are now seeking written statements of
support for the teaching (and where relevant research) from
our partners, stakeholders, allies etc. Will you please help
by writing us a statement of support either for the relevance
and quality of the teaching and the degrees offered, and/or
for the research? These should be addressed to Vice Chancellor
Prof Adam Habib and the Dean of the Commerce, Law and
Management Prof Nqosa Mahao, and copied to Seeraj Mohamed. The
relevant emails are below. The information presented here is drawn
from a series of meetings attended by Seeraj Mohamed, CSID
Director (and some myself) last week as well as from a report
from the Head of Economics, Prof Judy Backhouse who is behind
the two solutions of CSID shutdown or CSID degree shutdown. As far as we know, the decision has not yet
been finalised. The next few days are likely to be critical,
your swift support may help support our case. Please feel free
to forward this email to others who may be interested and
willing to support. Kind regards, Lotta Senior Researcher, Corporate Strategy
and Industrial Development (CSID)
School of Economic and Business Sciences
(SEBS), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg T: +27 (0)11 717 8075 ; F: +27
(0)86 765 5081 Excerpt from
‘Way forward’ document by the Head of the Wits School of
Economic & Business Sciences: The ideological battle being fought over
the postgraduate programmes is very interesting from the
perspective of how knowledge develops. On the one hand, CSID
may be right and theirs may well be the mainstream economics
of the future. In that case, if Wits has championed their work
we will be hailed as visionaries. On the other hand, they may
be wrong and it may all fade into insignificance. In such a
case we may be laughed at for investing in a fringe
ideological position. In the absence of a strong, established
economist that wants to stand up for this particular brand of
heterodoxy, I think Wits ought to take a conservative position
and stick to doing mainstream economics, but allow for
elective courses that expose students to these debates with
sufficient engagement by all parties to allow for the
emergence of new curricula. *** BEN FINE: |
_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
