Financing Universities and a Plea for Privatization

An investigation into ways by which universities can escape the financial predicament in which many find themselves should start with an analysis of the current situation and the forces that created it. In earlier work three generations of universities were defined (Wissema, 2009). The Medieval, or First Generation, University was involved in education based on the achievements of antiquity. Universities of this type did not engage in research as we now know it. They rather passed on existing knowledge and discussed interpretations of the classical texts, the infamous scholastic exchanges. Teaching was in Latin, which allowed for considerable mobility of masters and students. The modern scientific method, based on the objective observation of nature, evolved outside universities. Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei and so many others who made groundbreaking discoveries all worked outside universities. After the Renaissance, some of the groundbreaking scientists did work at universities. Isaac Newton, for instance, was a professor at the University of Cambridge; Herman Boerhaave, who did fundamental research in medicine and botany, worked at Leiden University where he became rector in 1714.