Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ You can't save research without saving universities

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This article questions the thinking behind "contingency plans for universities in the event that they fail which would protect researchers and their research," stipulating a set of conditions (eg., "there is sufficient funding", "the researcher wishes to move", etc.) needed to make this happen. But while not endorsing the contingency plans I would suggest that the heading really should be "You can't save university research without saving universities". I mean, I work in a non-university research institute, and I know of many others. Take, for example, the comment that "a building I know only too well cost ~£55M to construct, uses ~£1.5M+ in electricity a year and produces some very important technological advances." Nothing stops it from continuing on its own. There's no reason a full university infrastructure needs to surround that building, and in the case of many stand-alone research institutes world-wide, it doesn't.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 11, 2024 10:26 a.m.

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