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Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education
The third UNESCO Chairs Seminar in a series on the changing role of higher education, drew upon the 2021 report of the International Commission on the Futures of Education. “Reimagining our Futures Together: A New Social Contract for Education” contains key lessons for teaching, learning and research at higher education level, as outlined in the introduction by the Director of the UNESCO Futures of Learning and Innovation Division, Sobhi Tawil.
The first speaker, António Nóvoa, UNESCO Chair on the Futures of Education, University of Lisbon, Portugal, and member of the International Commission explained that the report presents itself as an open invitation rather than containing specific recommendations. He underscored that it was the position of the International Commission that great transformations in education would not come from new laws, methods or technologies but “from the ability to identify, study, share and support the infinity of experiences and educational projects around the world which are already initiating the futures of education.”
Whilst universities have traditionally had an inter-generational logic through the teaching process, the intra-generational dimension should be strengthened, enabling students to learn through collaborative research and projects, posited Nóvoa. Higher education institutions should also be exemplary models of democratic participation in times of democratic backsliding. Finally, he argued that inter-university cooperation, particularly between the north and south must be strengthened. There is nothing better to overcome hatred than dialogue between peoples and cultures through the mobility of professors, students and knowledge.
University is a place of freedom and human rights or it is nothing. It is useless.
The “fetish of competition” was then pinpointed as a key barrier for the transformation of higher education by Rajani Naidoo, Chair in Higher Education Management, University of Bath, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She argued that there was “modern day magic belief that competition will provide all the solutions to all our problems in higher education and society as a whole”, by being somehow democratic, fair and unleashing creativity. Instead, competition te,ds to celebrate individual winners, whilst systematically destroying community and public sector values.
Naidoo identified the COVID-19 response as emblematic of how open science and research collaboration led to vaccines extremely quickly, but that competition of commercial pharmaceutical interests led to unfair distribution of the benefits of this science, when universities partnered with companies. She highlighted the need to safeguard space for critical analysis and dialogue, as well as the need to change how we educate in a world of culture wars.
Higher education to strengthen intellectual and moral solidarity
The third speaker, Jocelyne Gacel-Ávila, UNESCO Chair on Internationalization of Higher Education and Global Citizenship, University of Guadalajara, Mexico, went on to identify key features for international cooperation in the higher education sector. These includes the promotion of intercultural learning, global citizenship skills, respect for diversity, greater international mobility of researchers and more ambitious research agendas. She advocated for the expansion of south-south and triangular cooperation among higher education institutions based in the transfer of knowledge, the mobilization of alternative financial resources and joint ownership of development priorities.
Dorcas Beryl Otieno, UNESCO Chair on Higher Education Development for a Green Economy and Sustainability, Kenyatta University, Kenya then argued that climate change has changed economies of the world, forcing a transition from the brown economy to the green economy. Therefore, integrating education for sustainable development must be a key feature for the higher education sector. Universities should be living laboratories where innovations can be tested, as well as transforming attitudes towards the environment. Preparing for the green economy also required enhancing understanding of the circular economy and sustainable consumption. She lamented that the green economy was not yet well understood and curriculum not well developed. Going forward, universities had a responsibility to develop teaching models and research that is pragmatic, empirical and interdisciplinary.
The aminated discussion with participants raised several issues regarding the business models of universities and the rise in competitive modes. Competition is not only in the form of the “publish or perish” mentality that has set in but even between disciplines, particularly between the sciences and humanities. The defensive posture of humanities colleagues should instead give way to efforts to build bridges with sciences colleagues. Some participants also pointed to the difficulties of making institutional changes in universities but even many small changes in promotion structures or the inclusion of young people can contribute to working towards education as a global good. Federico Mayor, former Director- General of UNESCO who spearheaded the UNITWIN Programme, reminded participants of the need for higher education to shape free and responsible citizens, in line with UNESCO’s constitution which aims to strengthen international moral and intellectual solidarity.
