Theory of justice applied to academia: can we make things fair?
Absolute fairness is impossible to attain, but I argue that with an
appropriate framework, academic institutions can at least move towards
objective fairness. Here, I propose such framework, which is based on
the ‘A Theory of Justice’ by John Rawls with the fundamental concept ofjustice as fairness (Rawls, 1971). Before discussing the details
of the framework, I shall first describe the basic concepts and
principles underpinning Rawls’ theory of justice, which form to varying
degrees the backbone of the framework proposed later. I then discuss how
Rawls’ theory can be adapted and used within the academic context, and
discuss a practical route for the application of the framework, which is
possible thanks to recent technological advances that can automate data
analysis and scoring of applicants independently of humans (e.g.,
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning).