The Need for a Global Association of Universities

The following is by Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, president of the International Association of Universities, and Eva Egron-Polak, secretary-general of the association.
Nigel Thrift, vice chancellor of the University of Warwick, recently wrote that universities worldwide need to become better organized to represent higher education’s interests, and better self-regulated to avoid being managed by bodies outside the sector. Coming together to position universities as “some of the most important actors striding onto the world stage” is more straightforward and less fraught with complications than the second idea—a “more integrated global governance of universities.” Yet both present tremendous challenges, and the first must be accomplished before the second can be gained. Our organization, the International Association of Universities, is a global membership organization of some 650 higher-education institutions and organizations. More...