Universities and their Responsibilities - Prerequisites and Underlying Principles

1. Universities and their Responsibilities - Prerequisites and Underlying Principles Bastian Baumann, Magna Charta Observatory Macao, 26 September 2008

2. Magna Charta Universitatum • Signed by 388 rectors in Bologna on 18 September 1988 • Now 630 signatories • Worldwide geographical coverage • Currently 80 countries

3. Content • Fundamental values and principles of the university • Institutional autonomy • Academic freedom • Based on common heritage of the university

4. Magna Charta Observatory • Founded in 2001 by the University of Bologna and European Rectors Conference (now EUA) • Based at the University of Bologna • No membership

5. Activities • Monitoring function • Convenor • Advisor • Think tank • Worldwide scope of activities

6. Needs • Increased and broadened understanding of our situation, challenges and opportunities • Optimisation of scarce resources • Contextualising and customising our approaches • 3 pillars of sustainable development to be taken into account

7. Context • More political tensions between those who have and those who do not have • Cannot ignore poverty • Cannot ignore inter-linkages between globalisation, trade, poverty, development and environment • We are living in a different world, we need education for a different world

8. Important Role for Universities • Education: understand the whole, diverse and complex reality and act in adequate, informed ways • Teachers training • Medicine, law, administration, business, industry, etc. experts • Further develop intellectual and cultural base of societies

9. Glocalisation • Importance of global phenomena • Importance of local outreach • Systems level • Individual level • Locally routed, globally informed • Globally routed, locally informed

10. Cultural Diversity • Universities need to live it • Transmit knowledge about different cultures • Understand and respect each other • Need for more dialogues • Awareness of one’s own cultural norms

11. What Can/Should Universities Do? • Infrastructure • Needs assessments • Advisory services • Specialised sustainable development trainings

12. Organisation of Universities • International • Interaction with region • Interaction with stakeholders (esp. SD) • Mobility • Students, teachers, staff • Not one way

13. Curricula • Broadened • Multi- / inter-disciplinary • Multi-facetted projects • Pedagogical approaches that do not just teach one response to one particular question

14. Readiness to Transform • Critical attitude towards established knowledge • Study programmes to encompass this attitude • Critical thought and analysis of individuals • Academics to push back frontiers and address the inconvenient truth

15. Responsibilities of Universities • Cater for the purposes of education • Educating people should provide the skills, perspectives, values and knowledge to live in a sustainable manner • Basic research / less lucrative research in the short term perspective • Responsibilities to society

16. 4 Basic Requirements • Academic freedom • Institutional autonomy • Integrity / values / ethics • Link between teaching and research

17. Contact www.magna-charta.org magnacharta@unibo.it Via Zamboni 25 40126 Bologna Italy