As I get older and a new year approaches, I am struck by both how little has changed, fundamentally, in the past 12 months and how this year seems to have gone faster than the last. At every turn there has been conflict and challenges to society, to education and to my own life. I am left feeling that these are not easy times we are living through but crisis has led to positive change.
This year is often seen as a year of crisis with the political and economic scenes having worsened, particularly in the Euro zone. With countries arguing over who is in and out of Europe or certain sections of Europe, we have some of the fiercest political debate on our relationships in Europe that we have had in a generation. It is splitting UK politics, it is splitting various members of Europe from each other and it is indeed splitting the EU from the rest of the world who look on, somewhat in horror, at what their “cultured” and “historic” friends are doing. At home, the Unions have been protesting, anti-capitalists have been camping, the coalition has been divided, revelations have been made about phones that were hacked (or at least thought to have been) and sections of society have been out rioting and looting. These are not easy times that we are living through.
Within my own sector of Higher Education, departments are being cut, student numbers are not clear in the post-fees era and the economic outlook is far from sure. The future of Universities has never been less clear and the role of institutions is not clear. I was at a Christmas drinks event recently where people were trying to argue that universities were not producing graduates that were right for the work place. My feeling is that their expectations of what education can do is false and that it is not simply about skills but about developing the mind, too. In the economic rush for up-skilling individuals, the role of educating can be lost. And the role of research has been challenged and its independence questioned. These are not easy times that we are living through.
Even at a personal level, it has been a year of huge change. The issues around the separation of my old tutor and allocation of a new one have been challenging. The slow progress I have been making with my own research has been disheartening. The loss of my mother has been sad and heart-breaking. These are not easy times we are living through.
And yet, during my travels across Europe in the early autumn, it was clear that the European Union was here to stay in the close relationships shown between nations and the personal welcome and empathy shown to me. There was a feeling that the EU has to work – for us the people – despite our politicians. And similarly after the riots or realisation that the press were behaving badly, it was realised that this was our society. The scenes of mass-clean-ups or wider-scale debate about individual freedoms were built on this. There is some evidence of a higher level of debate and civic engagement than before. Crisis has led to positive change.
In Higher Education, you are seeing programmes for change management, academics taking things into their own hands and forming new colleges and more discussion about industry in the corridors. Some of this may have already been happening already, some of it may only be transitory but, in the short term, a year of turmoil has made discussion wider. Now don’t get me wrong, life is hard for the millions unemployed, for the graduates without jobs and for the individuals hurting from the evils in our lives so I do not want to paint an easy, perfect life but, in certain areas, crisis has led to positive change.
And the change of tutor has driven me on and I feel I am working harder to finish the PhD and chapters are being written, revised, dismissed and accepted at a faster rate than ever in the three years of this project. At home, the personal kindness I have been privileged to receive, the relationships which have matured within the family and the hope of future blessings have all meant that out of loss has come at least something positive. Crisis has led to positive change.
So, in the end, 2011 has been a year which has whizzed by with challenges witnessed at national and individual level but as we go towards 2012, I have to be hopeful that many good things can come out of this time. These are not easy times we are living through but crisis has led to positive change.
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