With the recent Rae report, the future of post-secondary education in Ontario is again making headlines. While the general mood seems to be of cautious optimism, concerned voices are being heard from across the spectrum: students are worried about the prospect of increasing tuition fees, university presidents are unconvinced that the politicians will invoke anything more than a band-aid solution, while the same politicians are concerned that any funding increase to universities will give them anything tangible or measurable.

There is much to be said for the notion that any solution that leaves all competing parties somewhat dissatisfied must be on the right general track, but aside from invoking such general homilies there is something considerably more significant that should be said – particularly given that there is a rather large elephant sitting on the table that is consistently remaining unnoticed - namely: why should we care?

What is the purpose of a university? Why do we have them? What is our expectation of them and their function to society?

It is not enough to trot out clichés saying that education is a sacred trust and is vital to our future and thus must be funded to the nines. It is not enough to engage in empty rhetoric on the chronic state of post-secondary underfunding that limit our ability to compete internationally in the “knowledge economy”. In a world of increasingly hard choices between numerous worthy public policy options – health care, day care, employment insurance, pensions, defense and so forth – it is high time to make calm, rational arguments for how our wealthy society with nonetheless finite resources should be structured, what our priorities are and who should pay for what. I know, I know – that is supposed to be what elections are all about. But we all know what happens then.

So let us move, with calm and focused deliberation, towards the high ground. Let us shed our partisan skins and engage in an open debate of how our modern society should be structured. And let us begin, as seems fitting given the impressive historical traditions of knowledge and scholarship that it represents, with an examination of the role of a university.

What are universities for?

This embarrassingly simple question becomes surprisingly complex when one looks at it deeply enough. Most university students (not to mention most of their parents) would tell you that they exist as the most efficient route to get a well-paying job. This is a perfectly consistent justification – a self-imposed standard by the professional world to ensure that its next generation is above a certain bar – but by that criterion alone, it is awfully hard to justify why taxpayers are paying for it at all. Why should I pay so that some young engineer can be trained to satisfy the needs of Microsoft? I certainly don’t begrudge her the opportunity to work at Microsoft or Microsoft’s natural enthusiasm at the prospect of a subsidized apprenticeship, but surely there are enough economic incentives for both parties to do this dance independent of the forced contribution of, say, the tobacco farmer from Ingersoll?

Let me put my cards directly on the table: I don’t think the role of a university is to provide jobs. I don’t think the role of a university is to provide commercializable technology or create entrepreneurs or single-handedly elevate our GDP through its “measurable outputs”. I believe that the role of a university is to provide a forum for learning and scholarship. Period. Universities are keepers of the sacred flame of knowledge, a place where discovery and understanding are to be cherished and where these values are to be passed on to future generations.

Often, uttering these sentiments carries with it the risk of being labeled an “elitist”. This is simply shoddy thinking. An elitist is someone who believes that only a certain class of society is capable of such elevated understanding. I maintain, on the other hand, that the goal of our society should be to inculcate this knowledge and these values in all of us.

By training eager young minds to think independently, by exposing them to the magnificent intellectual accomplishments throughout the ages in literature, philosophy, mathematics, history, economics and the natural sciences, we are equipping our youth with the necessary knowledge and perspective to be innovators and creators and to therefore drive our society ever forward. Certainly, great universities create a bevy of capable innovators who have the skills and wherewithal to create great companies and bring prosperity to our land. That most definitely happens. But universities do something even more transformative – they create a society of young, critical thinkers who can reason, who can appreciate subtlety and who can understand contemporary events within an appropriate historical context.

Imagine a society where such people make up the majority and not the minority. Imagine a society with newspapers filled with sophisticated and thoughtful analysis of complex societal issues instead of mindless lamentations on hockey labour disputes or trumped-up invective on gay marriage. In short, imagine what it means for our society to progress, by any objective measure. And then imagine it happening without universities. I simply can’t.