Politicians as Students

Universities cannot compete in high-level politics, but they have a financial need to do so.

As European and American universities are racing each other to establish a top-tier of elite institutions that will command respect globally, they have increasingly enjoyed the attention of politicians, who want the caché of an academic degree and a smooth rhetorical command over complex political discourse. Seems like a nice match, but alas in their eagerness to show that they attract the upper echelon to their seminars, universities have gotten themselves caught in political fights they have no control over.

Saif, son of Khadaffi, ruler of Libya, and the doctorate he earned from the London School of Economics provides the clearest example these days. As of this last week, the LSE is distancing itself as quickly as possible from its former student. Yet not too long ago, there was a lot of understated, self-congratulatory talk that the institution was grooming the next ruler of Libya.

After the uprising in Libya and Saif's defense of his father's crack down, the professorial tone has changed dramatically. Never mind the minor controversy about whether he received help from a consulting company or whether financial donations had any role to play in his education, as this week's broadcasts from Tripoli show, the Enlightened son speaks of civil war and blood flowing, in order to justify his father stomping out democracy.

What was the title of Saif's dissertation? "The Role of Civil Society in the Democratisation of Global Governance Institutions: From 'Soft Power' to Collective Decision-Making?" In other words, the transition to democracy Saif and his professors discussed is now underway in a surprisingly radical way ---and there is no soft power coming from the guns of mercenaries defending the old regime.

The contradiction between the content of the dissertation and the political repression its author condones is too much for the university, but what can they really do about it?

Similarly the University of Bayreuth is back-peddling from the German defense minister, who, as everyone now recognizes, presented a plagiarized dissertation to earn a doctorate. To top it off, and to make the comparison with Saif even more explicit, there are questions whether Guttenberg arranged a donation for an endowed professorship in the same institute where he earned his PhD.

The major difference: The London School of Economics attracts the ruling elite from around the world whereas the University of Bayreuth plays in a lesser league.

But here is a lesson for the admissions committees: When these scandals erupt, there is almost nothing a university can do except retreat. They have no means of actively engaging in a power struggle except to refuse to participate, to preserve their autonomy. We have little or no influence on what students do once they graduate.

As Voltaire and any number of Enlightenment intellectuals learned, educating the prince, even if you are sleeping with him, never works out well.

American universities do operate their own kind of soft power: they have remarkably sophisticated means of tracking former students and they know how to inspire nostalgia and idealism for a lost youth. But the donations that follow these emotions are made long after the degrees have been granted, and they have more to do with first kisses and football games than with changing the face of Middle East democracy.