29 April 2010

Middlesex University is sleep-walking into a global public relations disaster by the announcement of the imminent closure of Philosophy. The world-wide condemnation of this boneheaded decision, which is surely gathering force, can only be avoided by a volte-face which, judging by the low level of decision making exhibited thus far, seems unlikely. The blind pursuit of the bean counters holy grail of 2% is regrettably entirely understandable in an institution that clearly has no morality, holds nothing dear and is merely beholden to a crass accountancy that is blindly indifferent to wider values.

By proposing to close the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University has transformed itself, as if by magic, into a world centre for excellence in the worship of the bottom line. This short-termism leaves Middlesex University standing proud as a beacon of incompetence, indifference, and the second rate. Henceforth Middlesex will have an international reputation as an educational institution unfit to call itself a university.

Alan McPherson
PhD in Philosophy,
Middlesex University, 2009.