In 1961 – 62, when I was teaching at the University of Chicago, I
got to know a political scientist named Grant McConnell who had spent a year
teaching at Makerere College in Kampala, Uganda. Makerere was an external
College of the University of London, one of a network of colonial academic institutions
that spanned the globe. Grant said if I were interested he could arrange for me
to spend 1962 – 63 in Uganda. I was about to get married that summer and
thought that might not be the best way to launch a marriage but I was intrigued
so I asked Grant what I would be teaching. He answered “political theory.” “What
books what I assign?” “Oh,” he replied, “you know, Locke’s Second Treatise,
Rousseau’s Social Contract, the usual stuff.” It seemed to me a trifle bizarre
to teach these chestnuts of the European political tradition to a group of
African students but he explained that because Makerere was an external College
of the University of London, the curriculum had to be the same as in London.
Indeed, he went on to tell me, the curriculum was the same at every external
College of the University of London in the entire British Empire. What was
more, the examination set at the end of the semester was the same no matter
where you took the course, in London, or in Uganda, or in New Delhi, or
anywhere else. The most delicious fact he communicated to me was that in order
to avoid cheating, the University of London required that the examination be
given at exactly the same time no matter where in the world the students might
happen to be. Since, as we all know, in those days the sun never set on the British Empire,
this meant that some students would be taking the exam at 2 o’clock in the
afternoon, some at 10 PM, some at four in the morning, and some, no doubt, at
midnight.
I thought about this as I have read stories about the
arrangements universities in the United States are making for distance learning
by their overseas students, some of whom might not be able to attend classes in
person and might not even be able to travel to the United States.
The academic year 2020 – 2021 is going to be a shambles.
The name Grant McConnell rang a bell w me but I cdn't quite remember the full title of the book for which he is, I believe, best known.
ReplyDeleteGoogle helped out; the book is:
Private Power and American Democracy
P.s. The date of Uganda's independence: Oct. 9, 1962.
ReplyDeleteSo McConnell was teaching in a colony but in 1962-63 you wd have been teaching in an independent country, albeit one that presumably took a while to establish somewhat more independent (from Univ of London) educational institutions. No doubt the British heritage/example in this respect remained, and remains, influential. (Makerere, I believe, has had a long reputation as one of the best universities in Africa. Btw I had a prof in grad school who had taught there, if memory serves, or maybe been a visiting student there. Can't recall exactly but I know he'd been there in some capacity...)