Speech by Dr Michael P. Mortell,
President, The National University of Ireland, Cork
at the conferring of Degrees and Diplomas in the Faculty of Arts,
Thursday, 25th July, 1997 at 10.00 a.m and 3.30 p.m.
 
Research in the Humanities

The role of a university in society changes from one age to another. If we try to spell out what we do - either for ourselves, or for the public which supports our efforts through taxes - it is not enough simply to repeat what was said in the Middle Ages about a "university of scholars", nor can we rely simply on the nineteenth-century ideal that we find in John Henry Newman. In each generation, the university has to redefine itself and its mission, and adjust to the changing expectations of society.

However, there are one or two features of any genuine university which have been relatively constant through the centuries. Teaching is one of them, and is perhaps the most obvious. But so is research. This is so central to what a university is supposed to be, that if we did not engage in research, we would no longer be a real university.

The word "research" might suggest people working in a laboratory, in white coats, doing "scientific research". But that is not the whole story. I would like to say a few words today about research in the humanities and social sciences.

If we reflect even for a few moments on some of the most pressing problems with which we have had to deal in the recent past, either in Ireland or further afield, it is clear that many of them are not scientific problems in the narrow sense.

For example, societies construct an identity for themselves partly by writing their own history. And that history is not something given, a long list of dates and events which are described in neutral language. History is something which we construct ourselves, and hence the need to reconstruct it from age to age in the light of new experiences. In this context, there is a sense in which we are what we think we are.

Our concept of nationality is likewise subject to change in the light of new political realities. The equation of nationality with being a citizen of a given state is much too simple to accommodate the ethnic and political diversity of peoples, and the redefinition of states, and their sovereignty, in new political structures such as the European Union.

It goes without saying that many of the issues which are central to achieving peace on this island depend on various readings of our common history, and on the concepts of nationality with which different groups describe their belonging to a distinctive national community.

Equally, there is hardly anything we do which is not economically constrained, and we would have an extremely one-dimensional view of health-care, education, or the provision of social services if we thought they all reduce to physics and chemistry. We could not even begin to understand the world in which we operate without some understanding of the economic dimensions of our lives.

In fact, once we start on a list like this, we very quickly realise that, as human beings, we try to make sense of most of what we do only in the light of politics and history, economics and psychology, literature and music.

There is a sense in which some of this work is already done for us, before we begin our research. Homer's Iliad does not need to be rewritten, and the masterpieces of Da Vinci or Rembrandt only need to be preserved. So we are not starting from scratch; it is true of us, as of every generation, that we "stand on the shoulders of giants". But the task of the university is not simply to preserve what we inherit from the past, or to repeat what others have said before us. The central task is to redefine our cultural and national identity, to recover the past in a format which helps us make sense of our present experience, and to invent new ways to explain the great range and number of social realities which define our world.

I am not suggesting that the universities are the only place where this takes place. But I am saying, as clearly as I can, that we will no longer be a university on the day we lapse into just repeating, or passing on, what others have done before us. This is so central to what defines a university that many countries have systems for evaluating the research output of universities, and comparing their performance with their peers. There are international standards, then, which we have to achieve.

If this university were to fall behind in research, our teaching would gradually go down hill; in research funded by the European Union, we would find few partners for joint research projects; and, in time, there would be a question mark over the value of our degrees and our ability to direct postgraduate courses.

I am not saying all this because I believe that this is an imminent danger. But a conferring ceremony, such as this, is an appropriate time to remind ourselves - both staff and graduates - of one of the essential functions of a university. Everyone knows that universities teach. And some policy statements on education might even suggest that that is the only thing we do. But I want to emphasise the central role of research, in the arts and social sciences, for a university such as this one,

• for the quality of our teaching
• for our contribution to the cultural and economic well-being of society at large,
• and for whatever modest contribution we can make to the fundamental values which form the core of a civilised community.

Some of you may have noticed that our staff are a bit sensitive, when people say to them, in June: "so you have a few months holidays now, don't you?" It is true that the teaching year concludes in May, and examinations are corrected in May and June. But the research which our staff are expected to do has to be fitted in, during the academic year and during the summer period, whenever and wherever they find the time. The international market in which we compete, as academics, means that research will continue to be a hallmark of what it is to be a real university, and research in the humanities and social sciences is as important for this faculty as it is for others.