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Universities are universal and increasingly international, but they are not yet ‘global’. In a world that is globalising rapidly, in which the central role of universities in the knowledge economy and in civil society is articulated more strongly and more widely than ever, we do not have a clear sense of what it takes or what it means to be a global university. ‘Global’ is among the most overused and least understood words, but at an instinctive level we know that globalisation is a powerful force that is going to impact massively on the evolution of institutions that have been around in a form that is recognisable today since at least the ninth century. Since universities embody so much of what is important to us as individuals and societies, culturally and economically, the outcome of globalisation for universities is crucial.
Creating a global university is not a simple question of competing in global student markets. Clearly international students are vital to the future development of universities, but a university has to do more than attract international students to a home or overseas campus; being global requires "international" to pervade everything a university does and for it to be embedded in a strategic and operational framework. Internationalisation strategies that are simplistic and backward looking are not fit for purpose in a complex world driven by ideas and relationships.
The Critical Perspectives Workshop and the Realizing the Global University Conference seek to examine these issues and form the foundations for the development of a web portal that is both philosophically and organisationally original. In the past, internationalisation has been considered either from the perspective of individual academics taking forward specific developments or through the analysis of general global trends which provide a context for the opportunities and challenges, but not the tools necessary in order for universities to develop or operationalise responses. In particular, existing approaches fail to recognise the central role and rapidly increasing importance of ‘the university’ as the agent for, and sponsor of, structured international engagements.
We aim to provoke and inform a discussion that will provide institutional leaders, policy makers and others across the higher education sector with the opportunity to develop tools, establish best practice and benchmarking standards, and create a structured and sustained dialogue to support effective action. This is an intellectually and organisationally ambitious initiative the like of which has not previously been attempted, and I hope that you will join with us in a vigorous debate both in the discussion fora and at the events.
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