3rd GHEF: Reflecting on the Past, Designing Sustainable Futures

3rd Global Higher Education Forum: Reflecting on the Past, Designing Sustainable Futures. From 13-12-11 to 16-12-11, Penang, Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, World Futures Studies Federation, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. See also Decolonising our universities: another world is desirable, Academic Colonialism, False Consciousness, and the Western University Ideal.
Background and Rationale
GHEF2011 marks the third session of the global higher education forum which is held every two years since 2007. It is an appropriate time to reflect on the outcomes of the previous forums which were held in 2007 and 2009 – what were the critical issues identified, decisions taken and actions implemented as a result of the discussions? GHEF2011 will be a forum to revisit the issues, developments and challenges in Higher Education since GHEF2007 and GHEF2009 and to deliberate on the futures of higher education.
GHEF2007 discussed the relevance of higher education in preparing and training the workforce for sustainable development in an increasingly globalised world. GHEF2009 was held at a time when the world had to weather the global economic downturn. It was a perfect time to deliberate on the situation faced by higher education during the recession and to come up with plans for the future of higher education. Now that many of the economies seem to have recovered from the crisis, there would have been important lessons learnt and experiences gained. Indeed, this is an opportunity for reflection as we move towards the future. GHEF2011 is set to retrospectively and prospectively gauge the impact and relevance of the issues raised in the previous forums in relation to more recent developments and challenges in Higher Education for higher education futures.
The Higher education sector was not unaffected when the global recession hit. There were varying responses from governments. Some higher education institutions enjoyed more funding, while others were left struggling hard with minimal financial support. Universities had to turn to other means for survival. As a result, concepts such as innovation and entrepreneurship begin to lead university activities with efforts stretching beyond those of teaching and research to include initiating collaboration with industry and community. In order to attract the industry, universities had to develop profit-making projects. Whether such endeavour interferes with teaching is a crucial question which remains largely unanswered. However, it is certain that these activities are gaining increasing attention, not only for profit purposes but in particular for the pursuit of branding and world ranking status. In fact, in some contexts, efforts have been scaled up and money poured in to build a facade of grandeur so much so that the higher education sector has come to embrace dominant characteristics of corporate capitalism. Considering that universities are leaders of the public good committed towards inclusive policies for access and equity, such a relentless chase at a cost to the welfare of many has to be questioned.
While sustainable futures promotes the well-being and provision of basic necessities for greater good of the majority, the lure and mesmerism of image, ranking and reputation exhibited in conspicuous spending in the higher education sector is detrimental to producing future leaders committed towards the public good as advocates of sustainable development would argue for. The question which we might want to investigate is whether universities necessarily have to be overly image conscious, striving at huge costs to be ranked as ‘top’ instead of meeting a greater need for the welfare of the many that is, prioritising to produce good leaders, employable workers and humble citizens, as part of an inclusive sustainable perspective in Higher Education. Looking at past experience when internationalisation of higher education was not as dominant as of now and when world university ranking did not serve as the primary table of comparison for institutions attempting to improve their status, limited resources could be more consequentially, channelled into meeting the needs of the many than to ostentatiously cultivate the exterior image of university which benefits a privileged few. At GHEF 2011, we wish to contemplate the extent to which we can afford to indulge in extravagant image building of our institutions at great costs to the well-being of the greater majority who need basic and quality education, sustainable employment and inclusive participation in the community. GHEF 2011 would explore the issue and challenge of sustainable development especially at a time of very limited resources and when fragile earth is precariously balanced with enormous risks to the survival of nature and humanity.
Because of the transformational, change centered and forward thinking nature of this initiative, GHEF organiszers have entered into a collaborative partnership with the World Future Studies Federation (WFSF) to hold a joint conference on this theme. WFSF is a global network of practicing futurists - researchers, teachers, scholars, policy analysts, activists and others from approximately 60 countries. Founded in 1973, WFSF is an interdisciplinary forum dedicated to stimulating awareness of the urgent need for long-term thinking in governments, policy-making and educational institutions, to resolve problems at local, national, regional and global levels. WFSF has held a World Conference approximately every two years since its inception.
In the area of global higher education futures, WFSF has a long established history. As a scholarly global community, many of whose members are university faculty, the WFSF has always had a keen interest in learning and educational futures. The WFSF also has a long-standing commitment to truly global futures; to understandings, which embrace unity in diversity rather than those that are homogenising or hegemonic. WFSF has held a World Conference approximately every two years since its inception. This year, WFSF’s 21st World Conference will be held jointly with GHEF 2011.
The Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), the World Future Studies Federation (WFSF) and our partners and sponsors are keen to explore these critical issues and challenges under the model of ‘one conference, one theme’ for GHEF2011 and WFSF 21/11.