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).