I took the train too far and arrived late for my call. Lived in constant confusion and cried almost every night when I got home. But then after long discussions with fellow students, involvement in the student union and rediscovered curiosity for learning, I slowly but surely began to fall in love with the academy. Do not get me wrong, it is a love that is accompanied by recurring anger and disappointment, but it has also convinced me of the important role that academia has to play in society. But in a society that is for everyone, the university must not be reserved for those who have been raised since childhood to see the world of academia as obviously theirs. The more important we realize that the university is, the more accessible we must make it.
It is not just us students who think about this. The academy's role, governance and purpose are widely discussed by politicians as well as sector activists and participants. An example of this is how the memorandum Brett's participation in higher education during the summer has aroused much discussion. Several debate articles and remarks were published, and on social media the comment fields became hot. Many welcomed clearer demands for broadened recruitment and participation, many worried that they would not be promised compensation for the same, and many saw demands for pedagogy that were "based on science rather than tradition" as unreasonable and insulting.
In an eroded university where a lot of problems can be linked to a lack of resources, it is understandable to be skeptical of demands without clear compensation for achieving them. On the other hand, it is problematic that ambitions to make higher education available are directly pushed down. For many years, we students have demanded a serious responsibility in both the pedagogical issue and the enabling of higher education for more people. That leading politicians are now trying to find solutions to this is in itself very positive.
It now remains to be seen whether the government's referral of the memorandum Brett's participation in higher education will receive a constructive response, or whether we will once again get caught up in a discussion that broadened participation and strong pedagogy are equated with reduced requirements. Both the struggle to counteract the erosion of higher education and the struggle to make it accessible to more people are issues that cannot be waited for. Hopefully, clearer requirements will be followed by better conditions to meet them.
I know that we will take the proposal very seriously and respond as constructively as we can. Because even we who have secretly cried and been ready to leave the academy's confusing world deserve to fall in love with it and see the value of it.