Strength in numbers

BRONWYN CHESTER | It sounds a little like a MENSA -- the organization for those with superior IQs -- for universities. Only a select 16 from throughout the world are now members of Universitas 21 and the organization has set its limit at 25 universities. But after speaking with Chris Robinson, the organization's director and one of its founding members, at McGill last week for the organization's third annual meeting, it soon becomes clear that the point isn't to be elitist; Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford, for instance, have not been invited to join. The point is for universities of similar size and vocation to survive and thrive well into the 21st century, era par excellence of globalization and of information technology (IT). "Survive" might seem overdramatic, and Robinson certainly hopes it is. Nonetheless, one of the concerns he and representatives of universities expressed two years ago at the U21 founding meeting at the University of Melbourne was about a new brand of competition on the horizon: virtual universities. While these universities are still few and far between, such tigers of the media-entertainment nexus as Disney, Microsoft and Oracle may one day use their hi-tech muscle to develop polished Web-based educational programs and abscond with IT-savvy students who would normally attend "campus-based" -- i.e., physical -- universities. Already, says Robinson, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, and Michael Milliken of junk bond fame and his brother have put together $500 million to start Knowledge Universe, which buys and creates educational enterprises. "We're not sure yet if these companies are competition but, nevertheless, this [Universitas 21] is interesting regarding what we can't do on our own," says the University of Melbourne-based former psychology professor. What universities can't do on their own may be done through joint efforts. There's strength in numbers but not in too many, says Robinson, adding that the big international university organizations are too unwieldy to take on the globalization/IT challenge. One of the hopes for Universitas 21 is that the organization will facilitate collaboration between member universities on such projects as developing IT courseware, such as CD-ROMs, for a course, perhaps, that several universities are interested in offering but don't have the means to set up on their own. It is one of the organization's tenets that in order to adapt to the phenomena of globalization and information technology, universities must become more international and they must keep ahead in IT materials. This mirrors some recent words of McGill Principal Bernard Shapiro: "McGill should not only adapt to globalization, but also move toward being a global university." The most important decision taken at this recent meeting, in Robinson's view, was the decision to incorporate Universitas 21. "This will allow us to seek joint-venture partnerships and give us greater flexibility to enter into a variety of relationships with corporate partners." Members also voted to expand student, faculty and staff-member exchanges between member universities. This is no small feat where students are concerned because course loads and accreditation typically vary between universities; establishing a mechanism for easy movement of students among two or more universities has to be worked out. Future meetings between the various deans of faculties, department chairs and directors of schools were also set up. Shapiro considers it important that "we go from the bottom up and not do the opposite." Already, earlier this year, the deans of science and management met in Auckland and Sydney respectively, while the chairs of French departments met in Vancouver. To date, there have been from 300 to 400 student exchanges and the member universities are now in the process of establishing fellowships so that faculty members can work with colleagues from other member universities. U21 members include three universities from Australia, one from New Zealand, three from China, including the University of Hong Kong, one from Singapore, four from the United Kingdom, one from the United States and three from Canada (UBC, U of T and McGill). At the recent meeting, it was decided to invite three universities from continental Europe, three from the U.S., and one from Japan. Criteria for U21 membership includes being research-intensive, reasonably large, campus-based -- as opposed to being a virtual or distance-education style university, comprehensive -- having a wide variety of disciplines and professional programs, and being interested in becoming a global institution.