Over time discontent has developed with the binary character of the traditional university, which on one hand has a research and teaching mandate and on the other a technical, career or vocationally focused teaching role.
The dissatisfaction stems from a growing awareness that these traditional roles cannot meet the needs of a new kind of undergraduate and graduate education.
Instead, what is required is a higher-education arrangement that combines the scholarly environment of a traditional university with that of an institution that offers instruction, community and industry response, open access, the use of advisory groups and work experience. Institutions that do so are defined as ‘new generation universities”.
They maintain the balance between teaching and research as well as application, and cover the main areas of teaching and learning, research and community service, but with a broader focus on serving society and, more particularly, their immediate communities.
New generation universities thus offer more programmes covering a wider spectrum of qualifications, such as certificates, diplomas and degrees and, in some areas, do so from the initial entry level up to the PhD level.
Consequently, one of the challenges is to develop learning pathways between career-oriented certificates and diplomas and professional and other degree programmes. These universities are also characterised by engagement as a hallmark of their internal and external relations.
In developing curricula they engage with business, government and civil society. They include academics from disciplines other than the major ones in which a particular learning programme might be situated. Hands-on experience forms an important component of the education.
In the field of research, new generation universities are centred on problem-solving or user-inspired research, which relates to challenges faced by their constituent communities.
The research is usually characterised by technology transfer, whereby the knowledge generated by researchers is infused into industry, business, government authorities or civil society. Universities of technology in South Africa (previously referred to as technikons) are typical new generation institutions.
They have an applied research legacy and, as such, are well positioned to take up a strategic research agenda. Their strength is that they already have links with industry, which inspired their establishment in the first place.
But new generation universities should guard against separating research activity from teaching and learning. It is only through a combination of these that they will ensure their graduates are work-ready and community prepared. This notion cannot be limited to these institutions — demands for relevance and reimagining ‘the university” are applicable to all universities.
The central concern remains how higher education can become more meaningful to society. In addressing this question, we have to steer away from straight-jacketing ourselves into typologies, networks and associations that may limit possibilities and potentials in specific contexts.
As they pursue strategic research, these universities have the opportunity of focusing specifically on technology production and innovation.
All scientific work within a university of technology should be geared towards the study of technology, the creation of relevant technology and ensuring the optimal application of such technology.
Strategic research at new generation universities includes:
- A curriculum which is dynamic and permits product study at undergraduate level and interdisciplinary study at postgraduate level. This is to allow the research agenda to address the questions, problems and crises confronting society, and to facilitate the immediate application of research.
- A research agenda that could be shaped by government, NGOs, industry and civil society, constituting strategic collaborative research;
- An opportunity to generate demand-oriented knowledge. The recent financial crisis offers the new generation universities an opportunity to highlight the long-term sustainability of higher education through producing demand-oriented knowledge as a driver for economic growth.
Demand-oriented knowledge should be shaped by the needs of companies or organisations in their immediate vicinity. For example, Vaal University of Technology is in the company of Sasol, Mittal Steel and Rand Water, surrounded by impoverished communities with high unemployment.
Demand-oriented knowledge requires research to be entrepreneurial, since research that addresses immediate concerns unleashes the potential to create new opportunities. If optimum benefit is to be derived from strategic research, a university that incorporates all disciplines may not be desirable.
The focus should therefore be the immediate relevance of any research. This would create an opportunity for industry and related agencies to invest in appropriate infrastructure, for example, equipment.
New generation universities could include specialised centres as incubators of innovation. Upon maturation, these would become holding companies or would create opportunities to provide particular services.
Innovation centres should retain their focus, for example, sustainable energy, food security, biotechnology, the environment, health or nanotechnology. These centres would have to be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the changing demands of a project.
New generation universities can also engage in predictive research. This kind of work requires complex scientific modelling, forecasting and scenario generation to capture potential future problems and seek solutions to them.
Predictive research, driven by immediate concerns such as resource viability and sustainability, must also take into consideration how resources are produced, organised, accessed and distributed.
Undertaking scientific research purely for profit generation without consideration of its broader implications would not constitute responsible research.
The new generation universities have an exciting role to play in society. Whether they are able to embrace their potential depends on whether they can imagine universities that are free and fresh to experiment, engage creatively with, and respond to, the needs and concerns of society, without getting lost in an undefined new space.
The authors are from the Vaal University of Technology. Professor Alwyn Louw is the deputy vice-chancellor of academic and research, Dr Bernadette Johnson is the executive director of research and Dr Jan Smit is director of curriculum development and program qualification mix. This is an edited version of a paper titled ‘The New Generation University: Views on knowledge and knowledge generation’, delivered at the conference.
Rethinking the idea of tertiary education
The Vaal University of Technology’s faculty of management sciences and its research directorate recently hosted a conference on new generation universities.
Titled Education towards a Technologically Innovative Society, the conference provided a platform for considering various questions related to the idea of new generation
universities.
Delegates from South Africa, New Zealand, Germany, the United Kingdom, India and Germany considered what new generation universities are, how they differ from other universities and what their contribution is to society and social development.
In addition, engineering and technology and entrepreneurial universities were also discussed.
Focusing on fuel cells, nanotechnology, mechanical engineering and water resources engineering and management, the delegates exchanged ideas about how these universities can meet future and alternative educational and training needs as well as organisational needs related to technology.
The conference also investigated innovative technology applications for teaching and learning and looked at leadership and resource development topics related to integrating information technology into institutions of higher educat ion, including technoentrepreneurship, social development and innovation creativity. — Cornia Pretorius