Appel om en kompetent videnskabsminister

Det er inspirerende at se kommentarer til hjemlige forhold fra folk med omfattende erfaringer fra udlandet, ikke mindst på universitetsområdet. Derfor er det velkomment at læse videnskabsmand og initiativtager til ISSP (Initiativet for Videnskab, Samfund og Politik) Steen Rasmussen på sin blog den 17/9 (her) kommentere folketingsvalget i en videnskabspolitisk vinkel. Steen, som har en biofysisk ekspertise i komplekse systemer, har i mange år forsket i USA og vendte for nogle år siden tilbage til Danmark. Her er et par uddrag, som ender med en bøn om en ordentlig kompetenceprofil for den nye videnskabsminister.

"the Danish Universities urgently need new governance rules. We currently have a governance form that is quite similar to that of e.g. General Motors. Most Danes are not aware that our current university governance is significantly more top-down and corporate in nature than any university governance I have seen at US universities. It is, however, clear to most people associated with the Danish Universities that it is causing all kinds of problems trying to govern the universities as if they were large corporations.
(...)
To keep this basic university mission intact and at the same time expand the university mission to directly boost societal productivity and wealth production is not an easy task. It certainly warrens the development of new organizations and new governance rules. Further, as the universities have grown dramatically in volume over the last generation, financially responsible governance has become even more important, which, however, still does not warren a switch to our current university governance form basically copied and pasted from large for profit corporations.
(...)
Therefore to the new Women of Power in Denmark:
• Break with current praxis.
• When assembling the new Parliament, value competency, experience and insight.
• Do not continue to rule by smoke and mirrors. We’ve see that it doesn’t work in the long run, and we all have too much at stake."