GLOBAL: On-line forum prior to world conference

In the run-up to next week's Unesco World Conference on Higher Education*, a series of regional meetings refined the themes to internationalism, regionalism and globalisation, as well as equity, access and quality and, finally, learning, research and innovation. Officials regarded the consultative process as highly productive but they also wanted to broaden the debate while ensuring the discussions reached the broadest consensus on practical solutions proposed. As part of this process, Unesco organised a three-week online internet forum ahead of the conference so the issues raised could be fed into conference debates.

Georges Haddad, Director of Unesco's Higher Education Division, said: "The objective of this forum was to contribute to the work of the conference by broadening and sharpening the debate on the future of higher education with a view to extending it beyond the conference itself - opening the windows to new thoughts, ideas and solutions that will inform policy making at system and institutional levels and empower the younger generation of thinkers and higher education leaders."

More than 890 people were involved, with 175 messages from 30 countries, 37% from Africa, Unesco's priority continent. Fifteen discussants were asked to guide the debate, including David Jobbins, chair of the board of University World News. Here is his opening contribution on one of the three themes - Learning, research and innovation.

Learning, research and innovation are the three necessary and complementary roles of the higher education sector and its institutions. None of the three can exist in isolation: they are interdependent.

All have specific requirements from the higher education system or institution in which they exist: adequate funding, freedom of inquiry and autonomy. The absence of any of these necessary conditions leads to tensions that can cause conflicts in the delivery of the roles in their entirety.

The vitality of the linkage between learning, research and innovation is key to their sustainability and their ability to serve societal needs in the knowledge society and economy in the context of globalisation. If any of the three strands is subordinate, this vitality is at risk.

Tensions develop within systems: between institutions and the state, among institutions with different origins and cultures, and within institutions as factionalism pits teacher against researcher, or blue skies research against applied research.

In Europe, North America and other regions with a long history of higher education and research development, the higher education systems are diverse and complex. Some, often the oldest, combine pure and applied research with doctoral and undergraduate education in an environment of well-found research facilities and a culture that supports the inter-dependence of the key roles.

Other institutions, by virtue of their origins and ethos, focus on undergraduate teaching with a reduced emphasis on pure research. Many are at points on the spectrum between these poles. All are being affected incidentally rather than directly by the global economic downturn.

Outside these regions, universities struggle to cope with the pressures of variable resourcing, reduced autonomy, shortages of staff with advanced qualifications and acute instabilities associated with the fluctuations of the global economy.

If the common goal is to achieve progress at a social, economic and human level, and continue the process of striving to eliminate want, what is the best way to manage this process internationally and nationally?

In a world of 'liberal' economic values, it was counter-intuitive to export intellectual capital under the guise of development aid or institutional cooperation. Are market forces still the appropriate mechanism? Should the lessons of the failure of national financial institutions usher in a new era of altruistic collaboration?

Or will the economic and educational hotspots still attract the brightest and best from the weaker economies where their talents will not be rewarded?

* University World News is the official media partner of the Unesco conference. We will publish daily reports from the conference starting next week.