This is a post and response in the Halifax Chronicle Herald that speaks to the role of a university. On the one hand, Bill Black looks at the money spent by the province to support universities and asks "A re taxpayers and students getting good value for their money?" On the other hand, Dave Westwood and Julia M. Wright argue that we can't use economic measures alone when discussing the worth of the university. "Decision-makers and critics seem to be losing sight of the fact that universities are places of scholarship and learning, not corporations designed to produce commodities at the lowest possible price," they write. No doubt they are correct, but their account of the value of the university is no better than Black's. Simply saying that the university does not produce commodities does not liberate it from the need to create benefits, nor does it make sense to ignore what it costs both students and taxpayers. If "pedagogy, quality, breadth and depth, critical thinking and the public good" are food, why are they good, and how do we know this?
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