Higher Education and Globalisation: an Indissolubly Technical and Ethical Partnership

IAU Horizons, the Association's news and information magazine is addressed primarily to IAU Member Institutions and Organizations, but is also sent to a selected audience beyond the IAU Membership such as Ministries of Higher Education, international organizations, national and regional associations of universities and others.
Higher Education and Globalisation: an Indissolubly Technical and Ethical Partnership (IAU Horizons Vol. 18, no.3 & Vol.19, no.1)
By Monique Castillo, Professor of Philosophy, Université Paris-Est Créteil, France.
First Vision of Globalisation: Multipolarity as a Division of the World
Difference encourages competition between nations and continents In a world where everyone is looking out for him or herself, students are striving for a dominant place amongst the new elites of globalization, which for them represents a mass of opportunities there for the taking; they are devoting all their energy to contributing to the new achievements of the “information age”.
Consequences for universities: No public world culture; Manipulative elites; Achievement vs. ethics.
In an international context dominated by uncertainty, we have to accept change in order to turn it into opportunity; our utmost duty is to ensure that, as humans, we mobilise ourselves to keep up with change. The type of person who establishes him or herself as an elite inspires neither confidence nor envy, especially a ‘fighter’, unafraid of compromise, with a mercenary view of the knowledge economy.
Second Vision of Globalisation: Irreversible Technological Homogenisation
The race for diplomas and patents anticipates and precipitates the advent of a mangerialised world Globalisation is seen as inevitable and irreversible cultural homogenization. Basic knowledge which lets students be part of this globalization is the sort of knowledge which needs no culture; knowledge is passed on thanks to its cultural anonymity. An exclusively utilitarian concept of knowledge leads to a generalised deculturalisation of the elite, with excellence being limited to the possession of what is known as “cognitive capitalism”, which integrates knowledge into the productive dynamic.
Consequences for universities: A public world culture founded on a general deculturalisation; Citizens of the world who have neither faith nor rules; Knowledge as cognitive technology.
Expert debates just bring together decultured individuals, with globalisation acting as a dispossessor of universal culture. The disengagement between professional success and culture favours inculture: the winners of this deculturalisation become indifferent world citizens (L’économie mondialisée, Reich).
Third vision of globalisation: the need for common cultural good
The promotion of a pluralist public culture becomes a universal goal At a time when fierce competition is dividing people, we need a public culture capable of favouring the creativity of each one of us within a climate of universal peace. Pluralism as a common good can become a universal goal, provided that we fight against both cultural homogenization and cultural tribalism (favouring one’s own culture, disdaining the other’s)... Read more in IAU Horizons Vol. 18, no.3 & Vol.19, no.1.