The Oxford Study programme faces a worrying lack of scrutiny | Cherwell - Libby Cherry:
June 10, 2019 - "Academic freedom is being threatened at Oxford University ... behind closed doors as part of a global attempt by a small sect of libertarians to ... exercise undue influence over those in power: legislators, policymakers, and, most insidiously, students and academics....
"[T]he Oxford Study Abroad Programme ... acts as an intermediary between US students and ... specific colleges, facilitating placements as Associated Members or Visiting Students for up to a year..... OSAP also runs ‘Specialised Summer Programs’. Whilst these ‘Programs’ use college facilities and are often instructed by handpicked Oxford academics, students are taught using custom reading lists and lectures developed by the 'faculty leaders' of the programmes ... without ‘interference’ from OSAP itself. Nor does OSAP’s educational scheme show evidence of being overseen by the central University or departments....
"Not only does this seem a singularly irresponsible model, a closer look at OSAP’s sample lectures, lecturers, and academic advisors reveals a highly commercialised organisation aimed at pushing a far-right agenda that is not only similar to those being propagated in the US but is directly funded from the same Koch sources....
"OSAP is the brainchild of the late Chicago-trained economist, Robert L. Schuettinger.... Trained under Friedrich Hayek in the 1950s ... Schuettinger was an Associate Member of Christ Church, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University’s Rothermere Institute.... Not only was he Director of Studies at US conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which received $300,000 from the Koch-affiliated organisations in 2013, he was also a contributor to the Mises Institute’s online journal. The [Mises] Institute’s board of directors includes Bob Luddy, who founded the Thales Academy, a chain of private schools teaching 'free-market economics' to school pupils.... But perhaps most damningly, Scheuttinger was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, near-universally considered the most exclusive club of libertarian ideologues internationally ... with members including Charles Koch himself....
"Edwin Feulner, cited as a member of OSAP’s ‘Academic Advisory Board’, was former President of the Heritage Foundation and member of the 2016 Trump transition team.... OSAP’s website also includes praise from Texan Public Policy affiliate Ronald Trowbridge, who has formerly argued for the privatisation of universities....
""[T]he Reagan-Thatcher Lecture Series ... OSAP’s 'latest offering' ... received $10,000 from the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation.... The lecturers on the Reagan-Thatcher series ... includ[e] historians Mark Almond, formerly a lecturer at Oriel College, and Norman Stone, former Chair of Modern History at Oxford and foreign policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher.... Almond also has his own personal ties with the American libertarian network, acting as an Academic Advisor for the Ron Paul Institute....
"This fatal combination of narrow political ideology, politicised funding, poor educational materials, and questionable lecturers makes OSAP’s course the paradigmatic opposite of academic freedom.... Putting aside the fact that their political philosophy encompasses those who have espoused racist, anti-democratic, and elitist viewpoints, simply allowing the University’s name to be associated with completely unregulated educational programmes seems absurd."
Read more: https://cherwell.org/2019/06/10/the-long-read-the-libertarian-links-of-a-private-tuition-programme/
'via Blog this'
June 10, 2019 - "Academic freedom is being threatened at Oxford University ... behind closed doors as part of a global attempt by a small sect of libertarians to ... exercise undue influence over those in power: legislators, policymakers, and, most insidiously, students and academics....
"[T]he Oxford Study Abroad Programme ... acts as an intermediary between US students and ... specific colleges, facilitating placements as Associated Members or Visiting Students for up to a year..... OSAP also runs ‘Specialised Summer Programs’. Whilst these ‘Programs’ use college facilities and are often instructed by handpicked Oxford academics, students are taught using custom reading lists and lectures developed by the 'faculty leaders' of the programmes ... without ‘interference’ from OSAP itself. Nor does OSAP’s educational scheme show evidence of being overseen by the central University or departments....
"Not only does this seem a singularly irresponsible model, a closer look at OSAP’s sample lectures, lecturers, and academic advisors reveals a highly commercialised organisation aimed at pushing a far-right agenda that is not only similar to those being propagated in the US but is directly funded from the same Koch sources....
"OSAP is the brainchild of the late Chicago-trained economist, Robert L. Schuettinger.... Trained under Friedrich Hayek in the 1950s ... Schuettinger was an Associate Member of Christ Church, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University’s Rothermere Institute.... Not only was he Director of Studies at US conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which received $300,000 from the Koch-affiliated organisations in 2013, he was also a contributor to the Mises Institute’s online journal. The [Mises] Institute’s board of directors includes Bob Luddy, who founded the Thales Academy, a chain of private schools teaching 'free-market economics' to school pupils.... But perhaps most damningly, Scheuttinger was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, near-universally considered the most exclusive club of libertarian ideologues internationally ... with members including Charles Koch himself....
"Edwin Feulner, cited as a member of OSAP’s ‘Academic Advisory Board’, was former President of the Heritage Foundation and member of the 2016 Trump transition team.... OSAP’s website also includes praise from Texan Public Policy affiliate Ronald Trowbridge, who has formerly argued for the privatisation of universities....
""[T]he Reagan-Thatcher Lecture Series ... OSAP’s 'latest offering' ... received $10,000 from the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation.... The lecturers on the Reagan-Thatcher series ... includ[e] historians Mark Almond, formerly a lecturer at Oriel College, and Norman Stone, former Chair of Modern History at Oxford and foreign policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher.... Almond also has his own personal ties with the American libertarian network, acting as an Academic Advisor for the Ron Paul Institute....
"This fatal combination of narrow political ideology, politicised funding, poor educational materials, and questionable lecturers makes OSAP’s course the paradigmatic opposite of academic freedom.... Putting aside the fact that their political philosophy encompasses those who have espoused racist, anti-democratic, and elitist viewpoints, simply allowing the University’s name to be associated with completely unregulated educational programmes seems absurd."
'via Blog this'
