University for the Future, the Future for Universities

Abstract

Both current and future global emergencies call for vast transformations of humanity. While this has been known for decades, the challenge of acting upon it remains. Even within academia, a growing body of articles has advocated for both higher education for sustainability as well as transdisciplinary research, yet most universities and academics struggle to change their ‘business as usual’. This article discusses how universities can and should support societal transformations through positioning care for all forms of life at their core as education and research institutes. Prioritizing care implies a different focus for universities, including a different concept of learning and development, namely one in which the world is continuously shaped and reshaped by all its inhabitants. Furthermore, this raises various ethical dilemmas, particularly when care for human life implies harm to non-human life. We review how the importance of reframing the knowledge-action gap by seeing learning as a process of action, which should happen in context and together, should be central in universities for the future. Last, we discuss two possible steps that can be taken today, namely (a) building co-creation labs and (b) integrating a sustainability mindset, content and actions in the curriculum of all disciplines to enable all disciplines to contribute to addressing planetary challenges. Some universities have well-integrated such transdisciplinary, transgressive and transformative practice within their research and education. However, in most universities, the usual disciplinary business is hard to transgress and these steps could form a start that supports building learning communities that prioritize care.