Using The Ideal University Model to Point out Possible Surces of System Failure and their ethical implications.

Introduction

All students come to university believing that if they fulfil all their academic and non-academic duties fully graduation will surely follow. This may always be true for students working under normal research conditions, but not when students are made to strive under abnormal conditions. The possibility is there for any student to suddenly fall within the domain of abnormal research conditions while at university, but this thought rarely enters in their mind when enrolling as nobody wants to be pessimistic about their future university life. However, once a student falls within these abnormal research conditions, the university officials involved(committee members and bureaucrats) have an incentive to gradually fail to perform their academic and non-academic duties, which in the end, undermines the students graduation even when the student manages to keep focus and fulfil all academic and non-academic duties fully. This leads to the following ethical question, Is it fair for a student who has fulfilled all his/her academic and non-academic duties under abnormal circumstances to miss graduation because faculty members and university bureaucrats fully failed to perform their academic and non-academic duties?. The answer to this question for an independent observer or party surely will be no, it is not fair. However, the answer to the same question for university bodies established to deal with these issues, such as university senates, will most likely be that yes it is fair, regardless of the degree of violation of students rights and of university policies. The senate would argue that even though the student had fulfilled all its academic duties, the academic work was not approved by the faculty members ignoring on purpose in the process that these faculty members have created the problem in the first place. Even under these extreme conditions, the senate will more likely dismiss the student's academic appeal to avoid making a decision that may affect the reputation of the university: the granting of the academic standing(diploma) when there is not longer a fair institutional solution left to formalise the completed academic work. The senate may take this position even so university rules related to academic appeals may grant it the power to provide such an extreme remedy under these extreme conditions.

Prevention may be the best solution

Not many students survive working on abnormal research conditions for long. Hence, most students in this situation give up before reaching the university senate; and those who reach the senate will most likely have their academic appeal dismissed as

at this stage as mentioned above the reputation of the university is at stake. Hence, prevention must be the way around. But how can you even think about prevention when there is not information available about the characteristics, nature, frequency, and consequences of faculty induced system failures?. All this information is kept tightly guarded and confidential by university officials. On the other hand, nobody is interested in writing or explaining extreme university failures.

The goals of this paper

One goal is to define an ideal university model framework that can be used to describe the nature of all possible types of system failures resulting from duty failures. A second goal is to define base on the nature of each system failure what the best interest of the university should be. And the third goal is to describe the mismatch from the ethical point of view between the ideal best interest suggested by the theory with the biased best interest usually follow in practice by university bureuacrats supposedly out there to prevent or restore system failures of all sort based on unbiasedness.

The ideal university model

The most desirable university model based on the interaction of two optimal components, faculty(P*) and students(E*), can be defined as follows:

U* = P*E* ; Where

P* = Faculty perform their duties

p* = Faculty fail their duties

E* = Students perform their duties

e* = Students fail their duties

The above ideal university model(U*) shows that it requires as its necessary and sufficient condition that both faculty(P*) and students(E*) must perform their duties fully. If this condition exist, the student graduation for sure will follow according to this ideal model. However, when faculty or students or both at the same time fail to perform their duties there is a system failure. The nature of these system failures is important as it can be used to indicate two possible types of university best interest: the unbiased best interest based on the ideal model and the biased best interest based on a violation of the ideal solution, as shown later.

i) The chaos induced system failure

When both faculty(p*) and students(e*) fail their duties at the same time we have a total chaos induced system failure, which can be expressed as follows:

U1* = p*e*

Under these conditions, it is not crystal clear who is to be blamed the most for the failure so the usual solution is either the student withdrawal, voluntary or by force, from the academic program or the dismissal of the student's academic appeal. The reasons behind the faculty failures are rarely or never investigated or addressed as doing so may lead to uncovering ethical dilemmas for the university, which erode any sense of faculty responsibility and accountability. It is in the best interest of the university to see that both faculty and students are fully accountable for their duty failures to ensure the sustainability of the ideal model.

ii) The student induced system failure

When only faculty(P*) fulfil their duties, we have the student induced system failure shown below:

U2* = P*e*

The above student induced system failure(U2*) shows that it is in the best interest of the university to get the student to withdraw for failing his/her duties; and to praise the faculty for properly fulfilling their duties to restored the sustainability of the system.

In reality, most university policies and regulations are well equipped to deal with this type of system failure, and by policy students have to withdraw from their academic programs and their appeals must be dismissed under these circumstances.

iii) The Faculty induced system failure

When only the students(E*) fulfil their duties, we have a type of system failure that goes against the own policies of the university, the faculty induced system failure shown below:

U3* = p*E*

Under the conditions of a faculty induced system failure(U3*), it is in the best interest of the university to make the faculty accountable for their failures, and to provide the student either a fair institutional solution to complete graduation or in the extreme case that a fair institutional solution no longer exist, the university must grant the academic standing and graduation to the student. This is the unbiased best interest of the university, the one required to ensure the future sustainability of the ideal university system.

However, universities are not usually well prepared to deal with this type of failures. And in reality, university bureaucrats twist the unbiased best interest of the university shown by the above model to develop a biased one. The aim of the biased best interest is to cover up the faculty induced failure by ignoring the failures that have taken place and by getting rid of the student by means of complaint dismissal.

Moreover, if the nature of the faculty induced system failure involves systematic bad academic support or potential scholarly misconduct or systematic policy failures or potential conflict of duties or any combination of them, the problem becomes so bureaucratised that no higher level bureaucrats are willing to take the steps needed to solve it too. And finally, if the faculty induced system failure becomes cumulative by going unresolved for long periods of time and swallowing the whole university redress process, the student ordeal becomes worse. Now, this type of failure threatens the reputation of the university. As university officials and bodies must act in the biased best interest of the university when in conflict as shown above, they will strive to prevent the student from graduating regardless of the seriousness of the ordeal they have put the student through and regardless of fully knowing that the student had fulfilled all its responsibilities. Is this fair?; Not according to the implications of the ideal university model when there is a faculty induced failure(U3*) because it would lead to un-sustainability, not to the sustainability of the system. Moreover, it would lead to still more violation of the student's rights and it would extend still more the length of the student's ordeal.

Again accountability appears to be the problem

As university decision regardless of their unfairness are non-appealable; and since there is no sense of accountability when top level bureaucrats are involved, all the remaining safety mechanisms such as the involvement of the university president and/or the Board of Governors will most likely fail too.

Conclusions

Details about the three possible types of ideal system failure where uncovered by means of an ideal framework. From all the types of failures described above, the faculty induced system failure is the one that raises serious ethical issues as in practice the best interest of the university is twisted on purpose in a way contrary to what it is required to ensure the sustainability of the ideal university system. Hence, the policing of the faculty induced system failure should be of primary concern for student’s organization responsible for the wellbeing of university students. This is because decisions made through the biased best interest approach implies that bureaucrats knowingly make decisions contrary to the evidence and academic appeal policies.

The general conclusion is that when a faculty induced system failures take place; and there is no fair institutional solutions left to resolve the issues; and when the student has fully fulfilled its duties and responsibilities, it is unfair for a student to miss graduation: the granting of the academic standing the fits the circumstances must be the binding solution if the unbiased best interest principle of the ideal university model holds. Otherwise, if the biased best interest principle holds, then, lawlessness is the rule in this specific system, not sustainability law.

Recommendation

Make it binding that when facing extreme faculty induced failures, the best interest of the university should be the unbiased best interest reflected by the ideal university model: Faculty accountability must be enforced, and speedy remedies to the student provided, either by granting a speedy fair institutional solution or by granting academic standing that fits the circumstances, including the immediate granting of the academic degree in question.