What is a university actually for? Is it mainly a place where students acquire qualifications for the job market, a public institution that preserves and creates knowledge, or a space where people learn to understand the world they live in? And who gets to decide what counts as valuable knowledge, useful education, or social benefit? Universities today are increasingly asked to demonstrate their “impact” through employment figures, rankings, innovation, knowledge transfer and other measurable forms of social value. At the same time, they are expected to educate citizens, preserve cultural knowledge and contribute to society in ways that are much harder to measure. This semester explores the tensions between these different expectations and asks what kind of relationship between the university, the state and society might allow universities to fulfil their public responsibilities without reducing them to economic performance. James C. Scott’s Seeing Like a State offers a particularly useful perspective: large institutions need simplified categories in order to understand and manage complex realities, but such simplification can also make important forms of local and practical knowledge invisible. What happens when universities begin to see students, knowledge and society primarily through numbers, categories and indicators? And what might it mean for a university to help students understand not only large-scale systems, but also the particular places, histories and communities in which they live?

Content:

The course includes a series of online lectures livestreamed for participants. Lectures will be recorded and made available on the course’s online platform. Students are given the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions with lecturers and fellow attendees.

Assessment:

Course assessment is concluded via an online test based on course content. Multiple examination slots will be available, students have the opportunity to retake test.

Completion Reward:

Students completing the course will receive 3 ECTS credits, as well as a Certificate of Attendance and a Transcript of Records

For University of Szeged Students:

SZTE students can only apply for this course via Neptun during the course registration period for 2026/2027 Spring semester. SZTE applications via the EUGLOH website will not be considered for participation!

Suggested readings:

Calhoun, C. (2006). The University and the Public Good. Thesis Eleven, 84(1), 7-43. https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513606060516

Greene, Gayle. Immeasurable Outcomes: Teaching Shakespeare in the Age of Algorithm. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023.

Scott, James C. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, Yale University Press, 1998.

Slaughter, Sheila and Gary Rhoades. Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.

Open