By Robin Middlehurst. Australia’s Monash University and the University of Warwick in the UK have signed up to a new alliance that will establish them as ‘globally connected universities’. Big promises from the two vice-chancellors of these universities accompanied the announcement.
The alliance will offer a seamless international experience to students, employers will be able to take their pick of globally educated graduates and the two universities’ research will address large, global problems. The alliance was proudly presented as an entrepreneurial approach to addressing the ‘university mission’ in a changing international context.
But there are other stated ambitions that run in parallel or perhaps outweigh those that appear more traditionally mission-driven.
The vice-chancellors state that they are keen to enhance their institutions’ global reputations and ensure that both universities are positioned to compete in a changing higher education environment.
Professor Ed Byrne from Monash also commented to
Times Higher Education: “We would regard it as very disappointing if, in a few years' time, there weren’t very, very significant sums of money coming in through this initiative.”
So prestige, competitive advantage and acquisition of resources are key drivers too in reaching the vice-chancellors’ joint vision of being one of the world’s 50 ‘globally networked research-heavy university systems’.
Four models of the university In a joint article, the two leaders provide further information on their rationale for the alliance. They predict seismic shifts in the global influence and structure of higher education (and other sectors) over the next 20 years and foresee the emergence of four models of the university.
The first consists of about 30 prestigious research and teaching institutions that will be invited to set up ‘boutique operations’ in host countries ‘at no cost’.
The second consists of a further 50 or so ‘globally networked research-heavy university systems’ that conduct research and produce graduates across many locations in the world – this is the group that Warwick and Monash seek to be part of, or even create, as first-movers.
The third model comprises small, specialist institutions that are globally known for some specific ‘prowess’. The fourth model consists of an undifferentiated mass of the rest of higher education – ‘mass institutions doing mass teaching’.
How attractive is this vision of the future higher education world?
For the councils or boards of the two universities, the vision of being a leading player among the group of globally connected universities is doubtless dynamic, exciting and potentially glittering with prizes. Indeed, the partnership has already borne fruit in a grant worth just over half a million pounds awarded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under their Building Global Engagements programme. The vice-chancellors, as CEOs of their higher education businesses, are clearly delivering what their corporate boards expect.
For privileged students able to afford the costs of studying for a period in Australia and the UK (that is, a small number of the 2% of students estimated to be internationally mobile) there will be wonderful educational opportunities. On the other hand, they might be more globally employable by choosing to learn one or more languages other than English and to participate in a non-Anglophone cultural experience. For numbers of academics there will also be gains in terms of new research opportunities. There may also be new teaching possibilities, but whether this will materially affect the quality of teaching and the quality of students’ experiences at these universities’ home (and overseas) campuses is less clear.
Downsides of the four models Beyond these aspects, the four-model higher education vision of the future is much less attractive. In relation to the first model, it is disingenuous to say there is ‘no cost’ associated with setting up boutique operations in another country; there will be costs to the taxpayers of host countries and to other funders and, of course, to students and their families. There should also be benefits, so it is a pity that the vice-chancellors’ rhetoric does not stretch to considering the mutual benefits for countries and regions that could arise from the international operations of prestigious universities. There is also no mention of any responsibilities that might arise from being privileged enough to be invited into another country.
The second model is couched in terms that are also principally institutionally self-serving, while the third conjures up an image of institutions engaging in international ‘derring-do’. The fourth model is the only one that might reach large numbers of students, provide tertiary education for the majority rather than the few and serve the wider needs of society, probably at less cost to the public purse in different countries.
Yet model four is at the bottom of the pyramid in the vice-chancellors’ vision and there is no discussion of any inter-connections between the four levels in the hierarchy.
IAU call to action The International Association of Universities, or IAU, has issued a ‘Call for Action’ to re-affirm academic values in the internationalisation of higher education. This call “requires institutions everywhere to act as responsible global citizens, committed to help shape a global system of higher education that values academic integrity, quality, equitable access, and reciprocity”.
For me, this is a more attractive vision for global higher education than that set out above. Perhaps it is time for all vice-chancellors who seek global glory to articulate what benefits their institutions can bring to the countries, regions, groups and individuals that fund them through public and private sources, rather than how they are seeking to acquire these resources for their institutions and their research at the expense of others – including those with the more humble (or more noble?) ambition of educating the majority.
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Professor Robin Middlehurst leads on strategy and research and international activities at the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education in the UK, and is professor of higher education at Kingston University.