Conclusion: The Academic University

Universities were supposed to be the herald of the post-Fordist information age. They turned out instead to be among the most entrenched Fordist dinosaurs in the post-industrial era. They promised innovation, creativity and discovery but delivered a lot less of that than their institutional predecessors. Business Fordism failed in the 1960s. University Fordism failed 50 years later. The universities became a singular example of why not only companies but large organizations in general fail. ¹ Such organizations often appear outwardly to be unbeatable. But inwardly their discovery quotient is considerably less than their delivery capacity. ² They run on empty—and eventually their delivery quotient declines. That happened to the universities. Incrementally, almost invisibly, their facility for discovery flagged. It did not disappear. Nonetheless it shrank. That was followed by a decrease in their ability to deliver knowledge to students—and to tempt students to study and think. On the whole students stopped listening and learning. Most students today at university study little, read little, observe little and write little. They drop out in large numbers. A large proportion of those who do graduate will never work in a job that requires a degree. University graduates once earned markedly more than median earnings. The typical university graduate today earns only a modest and decreasing increment above the social median.