Global University, The

Peer Review, Winter 2004 by Buarque, Cristovam

The following essay is excerpted from an address, The University at a Crossroad, presented at the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education + 5, Paris, 23-25 June 2003. Minister Buarque inspired conference delegates to question some of the basic lends of the university as it is presently organized.

Along its nearly thousand-year history the university has represented:

* A stockpile of knowledge that the graduate would acquire to last a lifetime. Today this knowledge is in constant fluctuation and the ex-student needs to constantly update this knowledge;

* Knowledge as the specific property of students in classrooms or libraries, distributed by professors and books. Today knowledge is something that is in the air. It reaches all sorts of people in all sorts of places through all sorts of channels. The university is just one channel, and shares space with the Internet, educational TV, specialized magazines, businesses, laboratories, and private institutions;

* Knowledge as a sure passport for success for the graduating student. This is no longer true today due to the highly competitive professional market that requires continual updating, recycling and new training so that knowledge gained does not become obsolete; and

* Knowledge as something that serves everyone because by increasing the number of professionals, the university product became widespread. In today's world, a newly graduated professional's knowledge is basically used to serve the desires and interests of those that can pay for services, using costly equipment that doesn't allow for distribution of the knowledge.

There have been no huge structural changes in the university over the past thousand years. The role of the university has changed little. However, the reality of the world's social situation and the dynamic advance's made in terms of information, knowledge and new communication and education techniques have made the need for a revolution in the concept of the university quite clear.

Hope in the University

The world experienced a huge ideological displacement in the beginning of the twenty-first century that included enormous political disassociation and massive social inequality. In the face of these upheavals, the university still represents intellectual heritage, political independence and social criticism. Thanks to this, the university is the most appropriate and prepared place to guide the future of humanity.

...

There is little hope left that a new global system of ideas will be created to re-instill hope for the possibility of an ideal world that combines the human dream of technological progress with liberty and equality. This hope included trust in politicians, religious leaders and judges that were meant to invent the means that would serve to create coalitions among human beings. However, if we examine the institutions that have survived over the past thousand years, we can allow ourselves this hope if we look at the university.

In order for the university to become an instrument of hope, however, hope must be recuperated within the university. This means understanding the university's difficulties and limitations and formulating a new proposal along with new structures and work methods. Fighting to defend the university involves fighting to transform the university.

Refounding the University

Almost eight and a half eentnries have passed and the university finds itself in the middle of a technological revolution in a world divided internationally. The university is in need of a revolution. There are at least seven areas that should guide this revolution.

The dynamic university

The university can no longer view knowledge as something that is static, long lasting or compatible with a teacher's life span. Today knowledge is mutable the instant it is created, and the university must incorporate this into the role it plays.

To accomplish this:

* A university diploma should be revalidated.

The university of the twenty-first century cannot be responsible for a graduate's knowledge just a few yours aller graduation. This is why a university diploma should require that students recycle their knowledge along their lifetimes.

* University should be permanent.

In reality, the university should extinguish the concept of the graduate. A university student should be permanently tied to the university, online, getting knowledge dining their entire life in order to avoid obsolescence.

* PhDs should be updated.

Degrees should be updated not only for undergraduate students, but lor graduate students as well. Today doctorate students finish their theses and have a title for the rest of their lives without being required to demonstrate its validity. In the modern world this title often becomes something that demonstrates valuable work that was performed at a specific time. A degree could take on historical value in the same way that an athlete's medal does. Often this degree has little to do with updated knowledge in fields that are changing each second.

* University professors must take periodic qualification exams.