On Creativity at Universities: Thinking Locally, Operating Globally, Caring Humanely

Universities are systems, not marketplaces. They are also part of bigger systems.

The now media-highlighted declining part-time student situation of the UK Open University, and the proposed bill for colleges of the University of London to become universities on their own, seem to go contrary to their systemic nature.

Letting universities to operate in global markets without considering that not every type of student can afford attending a course or a programme, could continue creating unexpected ripple effects in universities and their communities. It could result in less local, part-time or single-courses students attending as the Open University knows it too well.

Many universities in the UK and elsewhere have heavily invested in revamping their facilities to attract more students. The communities around them could be better involved in using them. New libraries, theatres or medical schools could also be put to the service of the elderly, the mentally and physically disabled and the unemployed.

University technology parks could be also directed to host social enterprises. And university students could be encouraged to work in community projects as part of their courses or their final dissertations.

Many other universities around the world have to cope with the pressure of getting accredited nationally and internationally whilst operating in very unique environments. For them, there might not be a need to build big infrastructure projects just to ‘catch-up’. The evidence could come from the small or only slight increases in student satisfaction obtained by those that have embarked in such types of projects.

With this evidence, and the worrying situation of staff and students in relation to our mental health, universities could then focus their attention in caring for people. An impressive building or laboratory is only as good as the people who work in them. Investing in people has never been a bad idea neither for universities nor for any other type of organisation. Perhaps the returns on this sort of investment cannot be clearly identified. I wonder, can those investments in infrastructure be?

We have now learned lessons from having priorities about globalisation, localisation and caring in the wrong order.

What else do we need to be convinced that universities are systems?