LETTERS: Nowadays, higher education is more concerned about profit-making and churning out graduates, not unlike an assembly line of products in a factory.
Most universities are unlikely to nurture big thinkers and problem-solvers that society needs.
Discussions about how students could relate one problem to another by thinking outside the box and through cross-disciplinary approaches have arisen.
The degradation of learning has stifled students' ability to participate in discourses with their tutors, whereby students have difficulty expressing their thoughts.
The pursuit of education is almost like a race.
Getting a PhD is the new benchmark to complete a university study, or an alternative route for the unemployed, rather than a journey of discovery in the scientific world.
David Palfreyman, in his book, The Oxford Tutorial: Thanks, You Taught Me how to Think, said higher education is about teaching people to think critically and reflectively.
It is a process of thought or reason that is exercised upon knowledge and not merely acquiring knowledge.
Therefore, the question of raison d'etre should be the foundation of universities, and not about turning into corporations that undervalue the humanities and social sciences.
The most unfortunate situation is where we fail to embrace students' desire to communicate their thoughts, making them unable to make mistakes and even try to reason or challenge.
Universities are a mirror of society, which aim to raise the intellectual tone and cultivate the public mind.
Martha Nussbaum, in her book Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, said: "If corporatisation of higher education continues, nations all over the world will soon be producing generations of useful machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, criticise tradition, and understanding the significance for another person's sufferings and achievements."
The pursuit of scholarship and academic freedom should matter to people from all walks of life to bring about change and embrace different viewpoints.
It is not in the hands of experts and academicians. It should represent all colours and layers of society.
To inhibit academic freedom is to stifle and control the thinking of citizens, preventing them from expressing their ideas and degrading their morale.
To suppress arguments and debate is to defy the root of problems in society.
This insight is what George Orwell envisioned in 1984 about authoritarianism, mass surveillance and brainwashing.
This will be the appalling offence that universities adhere to.
Academic systems are dubbed McDonalisation, according to many recent studies.
People management has been the central issue for improving academic performance in higher education.
Every university should honour and acknowledge the importance of thinking beyond the myopic confine of disciplines and nurture more thinkers and scholars to breed new ideas of change for the sake of future generations.
DR SHEIKH ALI AZZRAN
Senior lecturer, Centre of Studies for Construction, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Mara
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times