Education’s “Three E’s” and the McUniversities: Some Heretical Thoughts

An attempt to improve effectiveness in higher education must start by defining what higher education is. Higher education, however, has faced enormous challenges and undergone significant changes in the last six or seven decades, leading to a situation where its very definition has become vague, fluid, and contested. It is, however, imperative that we face this history and these difficulties. The introduction of Education’s “three E’s” – equity, effectiveness, efficiency – has, to a large extent, diverted our attention from the problem of definition to the burden of operationalizing the three E’s. This has contributed to the introduction of instrumental rationality into higher education, converting universities into “McUniversities”. It is now time to take a step back and examine these issues, as a pre-requisite to successfully improving higher education. This has become even more important with the COVID-19 pandemic, as it threatens to provoke drastic changes in higher education.