What universities can do better to deliver on their promise

From climate change to collaborating better with industry, universities are facing a range of challenges. Here are some ways they might respond.

The world around us is changing, which provides an opportunity for universities to recast their relationship with their students and the broader public.

There are three demands that universities could expect to be made of them in a climate-changed world, writes University of Technology Sydney’s Associate Professor Tamson Pietsch.

Universities will be asked to become more sustainable both in terms of their own behaviour and who they invest and partner with, and to achieve this more quickly in keeping with the urgency of the challenge we’re confronting.

They are needed to produce the knowledge and skills we’ll need to transition to a lower emissions economy, and to be places where a society in flux can come together and figure things out.

One way to assist with the transition to a lower carbon world is by Australian universities meeting the demand for training in the specialised skills needed by our Indo-Pacific neighbours seeking to decarbonise their economies, write Climateworks Centre’s Trang Nguyen and Luke Brown.

They also have a role to play in unlocking networks between Australian companies and neighbours in the region.

Political, educational and community leaders need to respond urgently to the current Pro-Palestinian student protests, writes The University of Western Australia’s Professor James Arvanitakis.

And rather than relying on riot police, as has occurred in the US, university leadership should be engaging directly with the students’ demands and dealing with antisemitic and anti-Islamic rhetoric as hate speech.

He also calls for a return of complex and intractable topics to the classroom and giving students the opportunity to work through them alongside classmates and teachers with which they may disagree.

Improving the ability of Australian public universities to collaborate better with industry resists a one-size-fits-all approach, write Southern Cross University’s Associate Professor Michael B. Charles and Adjunct Associate Professor David Noble, but fostering more grassroots innovation and embracing greater risk-taking would be a good start.

Australian innovation could also benefit from industry being part of the conversation when national priorities for research funding are set and funding decisions are made, writes Federation University Australia’s Professor Iven Mareels.

In Malaysia policy reforms for a more inclusive educational future are needed, writes University of Nottingham Malaysia’s Associate Professor Rozilini Mary Fernandez-Chung.

By expanding scholarship and support programmes for underprivileged students regardless of their racial background, Malaysia could mitigate the need for racial quotas, she said.

Making universities better workplaces isn’t only about more government money but rather far more transparency on how it is spent, writes Deakin University’s Professor Louise C. Johnson.

More could be done to limit, and even turn around, the casualisation of the workforce and strengthen academic freedom itself.

And the proliferation of university managers would benefit from better understanding the broader purpose of universities in society beyond their financial and narrowly educational roles, particularly as the world around us changes.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.