An essential reform

The Education Ministry’s decision to clear the academic map of departments that serve no real purpose and are nothing but dead wood that use up resources will not come without a political cost. It will be fought tooth and nail by the powers championing the populist notion of “a university in every village.”

It is, however, an absolutely essential reform – that is, if we want universities that are in tune with modern-day reality instead of empty gestures motivated by clientelist concerns.

The government cannot allow itself to bow to pressure in this effort to eradicate what is nothing less than an anachronism.