Walking the Walk

We live in an age of distrust of official sources. From turbulent times in US, UK and international politics, to claims of 'fake news', to complaints over photoshopped images, 'truth' is a concept that seems to be being torn from pillar to post.

In the midst of this, teenagers have to make decisions about the various claims made by universities who are enticing them to apply. Recently, six British universities were told to change misleading marketing campaigns, only exacerbating the problem. How does a potential applicant decide which ranking list, which website, which glossy marketing brochure, which discussion forum to trust?

In teaching, there is a concept called the 'hidden curriculum': behind the formal curriculum of Maths, English, History etc., is a series of cultural norms that students pick up from their peers, teachers and school staff. If students see their teachers, the theory goes, not respecting the physical environment of the school, then they won't do so either. The way teachers conduct themselves, relate to each other, and the cultural norms they transmit to students, are as important as the actual content they teach. If teachers are heard discussing with each other that they stayed up all night to get their reports written for the deadline, then students will think it's appropriate for them to do so to cram for a test.

I would argue that the hidden curriculum also applies to universities. One of my current students has taken one particular US university off his list because on hearing a presentation at his school from a university representative, he was disappointed with what he saw as the poor presentation skills of the representative. Though I have tried to push back, to him the message he picked up from this presentation was not the content, but the meta-idea that if a university was happy to be represented by someone who he felt to be a poor presenter, then it was not a university he wanted to be part of. In so many areas of how they conduct themselves, not only when directly communicating with students but in how they relate to their own staff, to other professionals and to the wider community, universities need to understand that actions speak louder than words.

So as students traverse a world where they find it hard to know which sources of information are reliable, it is vitally important that universities ensure that the messaging they give is not just something that is true on a website or in a prospectus, it is something that is lived by the institution in the values of how it conducts itself. Only then will students be able to decide if the university walks-the-walk, not just talks-the-talk.