Last year Irit Rogoff proposed that Goldsmiths, University of London, develop a free academy adjacent to their institution and call it Goldsmiths Free. She says the reactions were largely either puzzled - "What would we get out of it? Why would we want to do it?" - or horrified - "How would it finance itself?" And that no one asked what might be taught or discussed within it and how that might differ from the intellectual work that is done within conventional fee-charging, degree-giving, research-driven institutions. She says: "...and that of course was the point, that it would be different, not just in terms of redefining the point of entry into the structure (free of fees and previous qualifications) or the modus operandi of the work (not degree-based,unexamined, not subject to the state's mechanisms of monitoring and assessment), but also that the actual knowledge would be differently situated within it." This link takes you to an e-flux article by Rogoff exploring the difference in the knowledge itself, its nature, its status and its affect.
Image: title page of the Free International University's event programme for Documenta 7
