Business in Macau | September 2022
Keith Morrison – author, educator
The new academic year of Higher Education (HE) in Macau has begun. What do students learn? What kind of people does the institution produce? Take, for example, the thousands of students studying business and technology in Macau, HE’s leading recruiter.
This article is quoted from a business journal. Here, MBA students uncritically embraced only market, profit-driven thinking. There was a culture of getting a degree and getting a job instead of socially oriented holistic development. Students and their teachers, ignoring local and social needs, selfish conformity to neoliberal tenets and being entrepreneurial, selfish and competition-hungry individuals in a competition-hungry market was evaluated only. High-paying jobs, high-selling graduate creation, global mobility and marketability were highlighted. Students who did not follow this view were marginalized, labeled as abnormal, and faced fines and exclusion. Neoliberal beliefs defined the normal and the abnormal. Class society and socioeconomic inequality were reinforced and perpetuated. what were the students learning? Well, many things: self-interest, greed, greed, materialism, exploitation. HE for utilities, economic purposes and employment. Promoting consumerism, marketization and commodification of everything. Competitive advantages in a privatized market economy of public goods. Individualism and personal investment in knowledge capital. A person’s worth is measured by personal performance, and respect is measured by salary. People have become economic units. things, not people.
Or take information technology. A recent analysis of e-technology for learning found that of the 27 claimed benefits and 30 claimed dangers, almost all involved individuals. There was almost complete silence on society, community, social justice, values, ethics, equality, and technology for social and community issues and development.
what do you see here? Business and Information Technology courses were mostly silent about what society, values, ethics, morals, people should have, what is important in humans and society. Social service, community solidarity, human-centered society, social values, social systems, ethics, morals, and what kind of people we want and need were barely mentioned. .
We see social good, public good, social justice, (re)distributive justice, social identity and perception, solidarity, human rights, ethics, morality, values, care, and collective interest being swallowed up. living in the times , consumed by individualism within a neoliberal market mentality. He is much richer than these. As Newman said, the idea of ​​a university is to provide more than what is useful.It is to develop “an atmosphere of pure and clear thinking that the students also breathe”. College is not a place for professional education. College is not meant to teach you the knowledge you need to be fit for a man. [sic] Because of their special way of making a living. Their goal is not to make competent lawyers, doctors and engineers, but to make competent and educated human beings. HE is an agent for the promotion of social liberation, community development, human rights, debate, controversy, criticism, ethics, morality, values, social justice, awareness, identity and service. HE should take a stand on its meaning, purpose and critical role in educating students to participate in inclusive societies and promote social justice and humanity.
As you begin the new academic year at your institution of higher education in Macau, ask yourself: Teachers and students ensure that what is taught and learned promotes sustainable humanity, society, thinking people, social justice, equality, human rights, critical thinking, agency and debate. and a public, collective, egalitarian good life for all? What kind of society are they trying to create? How are they improving the poor, the oppressed, the exploited, the voiceless, the marginalized, the desperate and the unrepresented? How are we addressing these challenges? He has a duty of care and responsibility here. This is more important than just getting a job. Does HE in Macau meet these?
