Global university heads show leadership

Lord Christopher Patten, Chancellor, University of Oxford and Newcastle University, UK.

The World University Presidents Summit (WUPS) drew thousands of participants from ministries of education and universities in more than 70 countries to Bangkok's Queen Sirikit Convention Center last month.

Hosted by the Office of Higher Education Commission, the series of lectures and seminars served as a basis for leaders to collaborate, share, and discuss issues affecting developments in higher education. The summit came soon after confirmation of Thailand's winning bid to host the Summer Universiade in 2007.

With "Reflection on Diversity and Harmonisation" as the main theme, the four-day summit touched on the following key areas: the role of higher education, cross-border education, twenty-first century learning needs, higher education governance, harmonisation and diversity, and the role of sport in promoting peace and understanding.

Keynote speakers at the summit included Lord Christopher Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong before the 1997 handover to China and current chancellor of Oxford and Newcastle universities, and the world-renowned creative thinker Dr Edward de Bono.

Opening the summit, Thailand's education minister, Chaturon Chaisaeng, acknowledged "the increasingly diverse, but intrinsically interconnected set of challenges and opportunities we all face in higher education around the world."

This, coupled with the emergence of a global knowledge-based society has, he said, placed greater demands on a broader base of population to have a university education, as knowledge and skills are increasingly seen as key to national competitiveness.

The global marketplace

In his keynote address - "Global Challenges and Opportunities for Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century" - Lord Patten pinpointed globalisation and economic competition as the main factors that should prompt higher education leaders to rethink the ways they manage the role of universities.

Although a university's primary purpose, he said, is to teach and impart knowledge, such by-products as economic development, acquisition of skills, preparation of employment, promotion of social cohesion, and consolidation of pluralism reflect its broader role.

"More and more, developed countries find themselves dealing with competition from highly-skilled, low-cost, developing and middle-income countries," he said. "So the jobs we lose are often white collar - our trained jobs, our skilled and professional jobs, and jobs often held by people with a university degree." This type of competition, he added, should make a difference to the investment each government puts into higher education.

Higher spending on higher education does not, however, automatically translate into a country's faster economic growth, Lord Patten warned. By way of example, the former governor pointed to the allocation of research funding, and urged recipients to be selected on merit.

"If you treat every tertiary institution as though it [were] a research institute," he said, "you'll have mediocrity. And you'll fail to create the critical mass necessary to support excellence." Lord Patten went on to voice his support for research to be funded by a mixture of private and public bodies, thus addressing the balance needed between commercial and speculative ventures.

The funding of universities themselves should come from similarly diverse sources, he said: mainly from the state (through taxation), but also from the students, alumni, public trusts and businesses. In contrast, the Thai government funds up to 80 percent of state university expenditures, with the other 20 percent coming from students. Contributions from other sources are insignificant.

The wider role of universities

Dr Edward de Bono, one of the world's foremost experts on lateral thinking, continued Lord Patten's theme. He stressed that although universities regularly encounter challenges in such areas as funding, they also have a duty to produce graduates with skills and competencies required in today's workplace. Rather than spoon-feeding students with information, higher education institutions should teach innovative thinking, communication skills, and the ability to manage available information from the media.

Speaking on "Knowledge, Research and Innovation: Crossing the Boundaries of Disciplines and Nations", Vice Chancellor Sir Kenneth Calman, of the University of Nottingham, also called for universities to broaden their horizons. He said that by promoting new and original thinking, universities will provide fertile ground for technology transfer, as well as social, economic, and cultural innovations. Sir Calman went on to emphasise the role higher education has to reach out to disadvantaged groups who may not have the opportunity to break away from the cycle of poverty.

The four-day conference ended with a message urging all institutes of higher education to rethink their roles and aspire to more than just producing graduates. Universities should not merely operate like a business, but should recognise that students are there to learn how to deal with a diverse world, and how to test evidence against alternative explanations and theories.

Universities play a crucial role in breeding responsible citizens - well-informed, astute, curious, independent thinkers, innovative, and creative.

As Lord Patten said: "Education is about being, not about having."