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Structural impatience disguised as 'efficiency' diminishes the university and demeans the student, Thomas Docherty warns.
On the morning of 20 February 1909, readers of Le Figaro in Paris were roused by a front-page article written by F.T. Marinetti: the Futurist Manifesto. Scorning past and established traditions, Futurists wanted tomorrow today; and the Manifesto was a document that, albeit indirectly, shaped a dominant idea of our contemporary university: the worship of "a new beauty: the beauty of speed". Universities are driven now by similar kinds of structural impatience, usually masked as "efficiency".
One pertinent manifestation of speed's ostensibly unquestionable desirability lies in Anant Agarwal's claims for the feedback mechanisms in his massive open online course platform, edX. Submit your essay online and as your finger leaves the "send" button, the response feedback is instantaneously in your mailbox. Agarwal thinks this is good, a boost to efficiency, as it will "free professors up for other tasks"; but it is worth exploring the logical consequences. Don't worry, I'll be quick.
The appropriate parallel is found in stock exchanges worldwide. Since 2008, we have become more aware of how financial transactions are no longer carried out by human agents. Computers use algorithms to process data...