I was the Chair of the Worldwide Universities Network, a network of UK, US, Chinese, European, Canadian and Australian universities, for four years. The network was started so that those institutions could more easily participate in global activities, particularly research. I realised that we were using the term ‘global university’ all the time yet nobody could precisely define what that meant. It seemed to me that an understanding of what we did mean was an essential prerequisite for an informed debate about the role of universities in a global environment.
The first definition everyone uses is that the global university has multiple and diverse international collaborations between academic staff. However, there are thousands of universities worldwide that have substantial and diverse international collaborations, and not every one of those can be a ‘global’ university. So what are the extra factors that will define a ‘global’ university? I would suggest the following:
My brother has lived in Japan for over 25 years and he reminds me that, as far as the overwhelming majority of the Japanese population are concerned, there are only two universities in the United Kingdom: Oxford and Cambridge. When I travel in North America I am constantly reminded that most of the people I meet don’t even know where Bristol is, never mind whether it has a university. Such a reality begs the question as to whether any other institution in the UK can honestly claim to be global. The answer to that depends on which constituency you are addressing. I would argue that if you wish to be considered a global university it is almost a sine qua non that your peers and national policy makers should see you as that. You don’t necessarily have to be recognised by the person in the street.
This is a minimum set of characteristics. In the UK there are a number of institutions where quality of research, teaching and academic staff is certainly high enough to qualify them as global players. However, I do not think there is a single university in the UK that can match the facilities at the leading US institutions.That raises a serious question about UK universities’ capacity to globalise. It is essential that a global university is independent, has good governance and is well led. These characteristics are well established in many UK and US institutions but not so consistent in Continental Europe. Even for US universities, independence may be an ephemeral concept. Some of the state universities have their student numbers and fee levels set by politicians, which means they have to be careful about the number of overseas students they enrol. The institution’s head must be committed to globalisation and be prepared to persuade others at the institution that it is a good way forward.
The pursuit of innovative global research is the absolutely prime characteristic – without it a university cannot claim to be global. Clearly, global research consists of more than just greater ‘connectivity’, ie putting people together in different ways, maximising effective use of logistics, video seminar series and summer institutes. All of these are good in themselves and may lead to new ways of thinking and collaborating, but they are not ‘global’ characteristics. The global part of this comes in the marshalling of these universities’ huge intellectual and logistical resources to address global problems and questions in new ways. The scale of the endeavour, the size and centrality of the questions and the multiplicity of partners are the crucial factors here. This means asking academic staff to think in new ways; to ask them to see different horizons. This is not intellectually easy; most of us are much more comfortable with reductionist science. It is fiercely difficult to identify, never mind pose, the central, integrating question. The ‘connectivity’ benefits that I have described above will be an essential mechanism for identifying and posing these questions but it is crucial that this ‘connectivity’ is identified for that purpose and not just seen as a good in its own right.
A global university will have global distribution of its educational material and programmes. The majority of this will be provision of high quality programmes that will attract individuals who are wishing to become globally employable. The market will be predominantly in continuing professional development and it will be almost exclusively web-based.
A colleague recently said that he had worked at three universities, and that what differentiated one from the others – and it was an acknowledged global player – was the frequency and diversity of other academics from outside the UK visiting the department and the university. In other words, you have what other people in the world want to see. The academic staff must contain natives of other countries who have recognised the opportunities your university offers, not just returning Brits who want to be nearer their family. Finally, it is essential that there is a diverse, international student body.
Academic staff of a global university will be advising global institutions on policy formulation in global issues, for example advising the United Nations about solutions to global poverty or the World Health Organization about AIDS in the Third World.
Chief executives and senior managers in global businesses will naturally interact and collaborate with organisations that they consider to be punching at the same weight as they are.
There are a number of UK institutions that have all or most of these characteristics in part, but none has all of them in full. Comparison with US universities is very sobering, especially with regard to facilities. We still have a way to go before we can confidently say that we have a number of global universities – but it is vital that we invest to get there.