The lecture as teaching method, and the purpose of a university

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The usefulness of a teaching method - or not - depends on the purpose of the specific educational programme. When there is no real purpose (except to get some kind of qualification) then there is really nothing educational to be said about teaching methods.

For the great majority of students in the great majority of higher educational institutions, there is no educational purpose at all; for the great majority of degree programmes there is no real educational purpose - therefore all discussions on teaching methods are futile.

Such discussions become relevant only when both students and colleges know - honestly - what real educational goal/s they are really trying to achieve.

Here, as in so many places, habitual dishonesty is lethal; yet what we have in relation to higher education is worse even than that: it is strategic dishonesty.

No wonder scholarship and research are rotten: how could it be otherwise? 
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