The Pursuit of Knowledge: Speeches and Papers of Richard C. Atkinson

The Globalization of the University

99 The Globalization of the University May 2001 We are living in an age of unprecedented intellectual discovery, an era in which knowledge doubles every twelve to fifteen years in the sciences alone. Thanks to revolutionary advances in telecommunications , we are also living in an age of unprecedented dissemination of knowledge. Our rapidly expanding ability to share information and ideas is leading to what can be called the globalization of the university. By “globalization” I mean the forces that are transforming the university from an institution with a monopoly on knowledge to one among many different types of organizations serving as information providers, and from an institution that has always been circumscribed by time and geography to one without boundaries. For universities, globalization means: . Information and communication technologies—the InternetandtheWorldWideWeb ,streamingandinteractivevideo— are providing powerful new tools to forge global networks for teaching and research. To date, most forms of online learning have relied on platforms that are too primitive for high-quality interactions. Dramatic educational breakthroughs will occur when the platform is versatile enough to support rich visual and auditory displays, reacts quickly to student inputs, can acquire and use information about an individual student’s style of learning , and is reliable and easy to use. The prerequisite technology may not quite be here yet, but it will be soon, especially with the introduction of high-speed wireless platforms. . In this new environment, one organization—whether it is a university or a private corporation—can serve the needs and reap the rewards of worldwide markets. The global university could teach students anywhere (and thanks to the Internet, at any time) and draw its faculty from around the world. . Universities no longer have a monopoly on the production of knowledge. They will be competing with suppliers of information and ideas who have no need of expensive campuses, athletic fields, or faculty clubs. In a much-quoted interview a few years ago, American management expert Peter Drucker said that “thirty years from now the big university campus will be a relic. Universities won’t survive in their present form. The main reason is the shift to the continuing education of already highly educated adults as the center and growth sector of education.” And indeed, competitors to the traditional freestanding university are springing up around the world. They range from for-profit ventures like the University of Phoenix and Fathom.com, to equity stakes in private companies (UNext. com, for example, enlists universities to provide course content ), to licensing agreements of various kinds, to university 100 / The Research University The Globalization of the University / 101 consortia like Universitas 21, a group of eighteen European, North American, and Australian universities, or the Alliance for Lifelong Learning, organized by Stanford, Yale, Oxford, and Princeton universities. Investors poured billions of dollars into online learning last year, and projections are that it is a growth industry. The United Kingdom has announced its intention to establish an e-university, and the European Union plans to do the same. The enormous international demand for technical and professional training will encourage new providers of higher education to cross boundaries and offer teaching anytime, anywhere. But we do not know whether a large enough global market will emerge for online education; whether most students will choose subjects that promise immediate financial or career benefits, as opposed to liberal arts curricula; or whether traditional higher education will dominate the market. This is an entirely new world for which there are no models. For universities, the biggest challenge of globalization is to their institutional structures and habits of mind. I would like to briefly discuss three issues that globalization raises for universities : accreditation, intellectual property, and maintaining the university as a community. ACCREDITATION Technology may be making the university global in its reach, but some things about education remain stubbornly local. One of those things is accreditation. A major aspect of education is its role in credentialing students—those who pass the appropriate courses or examinations receive a degree. Educational institutions can credential students because they are licensed to do so by governmental or quasi-governmental agencies, whether national or local. But there are no global accrediting bodies, which is one reason critics of online learning view it as a threat to academic quality. Universitas 21, the consortium of universities I mentioned a moment ago, is betting that one of its degrees will have the same value in...