Comunicação apresentada na sessão de abertura da conferência sobre Identidade Universitária realizada na Universidade de Granada, em Abril de 2000

Trindade, Armando Rocha

Repositório Aberto da Universidade Aberta

E d u c a ç ã o   a   D i s t â n c i a           P e r c u r s o s287UNIVERSITY IDENTITYAND UNIVERSITY INTERCHANGE*1. Universities Along the CenturiesEuropean Universities were born around 900 years ago; and even if they changedquite a lot with the flowing of the centuries, most of their characteristics survived the erosionof time so that they are still relatively easy to identify:• Their classes of population remain divided into the professorial stratum, the corpusof students and the ensemble of non-teaching staff.• Their objectives remain more or less the same: the concentration therein of allknowledge available at each time; the creation of new knowledge throughspeculative thinking and the critical analysis of theories, observed facts andexperiments; the transmission of this knowledge to successive generations ofstudents; the public validation of acquired learning, through the emission of degreesand certificates.• Some other features of universities were somewhat less explicit: their capacity forfreely expressing opinions and to influence the policy and the strategy ofsovereigns; their de facto separation (in early times there was no question of callingit autonomy or independence) in respect to the State; their being driven byphilosophical and moral references, rather than aiming at circumstantial profitand material dominance.From this perspective, Universities were ethical institutions, even if they were highlyselective, elitist and essentially non-democratic in their internal organisation and processesof operation.From another point of view, there was a rather intensive interchange of ideas betweenthe old universities:*  Comunicação apresentada na sessão de abertura da conferência sobre Identidade Universitária realizadana Universidade de Granada, em Abril de 2000. (N.E.)© Universidade Aberta288Homenagem ao Professor Armando Rocha Trindade• The use of Latin that was, for centuries, the erudite common language in Europe,made possible mutual understanding across national borders;• Scholars travelled from one country to another and were received as visitingprofessors in different universities, spreading their ideas and knowledge;• Books published in Louvain, Paris, Bologna or Coimbra found their way to universitylibrary shelves in Prague, Krakow, Oxford, Uppsala and Heidelberg. They includedprose, poetry and speculative essays; law, theology and philosophy (including thecontents of astronomy, physics and chemistry), mathematics, history, geographyand the natural sciences; and everything else, like how to ride horses, how toeducate princes, how to work metals, how to deal with illness, how to save believers’souls.2. The Modern Age of UniversitiesMany things remain of the olden times in modern universities: their objectives havenot changed by much; old buildings, traditions and rituals, insignia and regalia, have inmany cases survived the passing of time; and we can still find the same extreme hierarchyof academic positions and functions.Meanwhile, scientific research appeared as one of the explicit functions of universitiesbesides the teaching activity; and so much so that it became a major requisite for thesuccessful progression in the teaching career.On the other hand, Faculties and Institutes acquired some degree of autonomy,specialising in the different branches of Arts and Sciences. Another major change occurredby awarding university status to the applied sciences and technologies, formerly consideredbelow the dignity of the so-called Fundamental Sciences. Post-graduate studies leading todoctoral degrees became an important part of universities’ activity.In Europe, financing the installation and the day-to-day operation of universities wasrecognised as a task for the State or the Church. In North America, a new trend was seen inthe 19th century with the creation of private universities based on grants and endowmentsgiven by local governments or by members of the civil society.© Universidade AbertaE d u c a ç ã o   a   D i s t â n c i a           P e r c u r s o s289We can roughly state that in the first half of the 20th century, universities were generallyrecognised as having a high degree of scientific, pedagogic and organisational autonomy;and a somewhat lower one, in what respected administrative and financial aspects, naturallydetermined by requisites imposed by the sponsoring entity. In terms of volume and natureof their student population, they were small to medium-sized and included mostly studentsfrom the more privileged social and economic strata of the generic population.Aiming at educating and training an elite of knowledgeable persons, designed tobecome high officials in the public administration as well as in private enterprises, in politicsand in the most prestigious liberal professions, universities carried on the tradition ofproviding quality and excellence, as necessary requisites for the exercise of power and thecreation of wealth in all fields of human activity.3. Contemporary Trends in University LifeIn the aftermath of the 2nd World War, economic development soared in the moretechnology-oriented countries, creating both a huge market for specialised professions andan increase of expectations for the future of the younger generations. Agriculture, miningand the more physical and manual occupations in industry reduced their manpower needs;and the sector of services increased manifold, making it clear that higher education andspecialised training would become more and more necessary for the future needs of society.A higher political conscience of the generic population tended to overcome previoussocial barriers traditionally associated with the privileged access to the more prestigiousand better-paid professions — hence, the demand of access to universities begun to increasesharply.Governments tried to cope with this in various ways: by expanding the capacity ofexisting universities and by creating new ones; by launching a new model of higher educationinstitution, not quite at university level but less expensive due to their shorter durationprogrammes; or by implementing numerus clausus and imposing more strict admissioncriteria.This was, however, not enough. Universities were faced with the fact that it was nolonger possible to remain small and elitist and that they had to convert into something likemass-production educational systems.© Universidade Aberta290Homenagem ao Professor Armando Rocha TrindadeNot all universities have adjusted to this principle and many academic staff stillconsider this as unacceptable anathema. They will suffer the corresponding cultural shockuntil they begin to learn that change is both unavoidable and urgent.Governments found it more and more difficult to deal with the need to foster a sharpincrease of the annual intake of higher education students, as well as the overall capacity ofhigher education institutions, for this meant a huge increment of budgets allocated touniversities. Meanwhile, competing priorities like sustaining the social security and thenational health systems and fighting the social consequences of unemployment and povertydid not allow for any leeway in the allocation of national resources.In some countries, higher education tuition fees were increased up to the level ofactual per student capita costs, thus making easier for the State, in financial terms, to copewith the increase of the demand. Some other countries did not dare to come so far andimposed just moderate aggravations of fees, which did not solve the problem in full. Insome other cases, the field was made open to the creation of private universities, (with stifftuition fees, for they must be profit-oriented) thus alleviating the pressure on publicuniversities and the burden on State budgets.As a complement, State-supported universities were asked to find new resources, byproviding special services to external entities: consultancy to organisations and enterprises,applied research for industry, studies for public administration, etc.This was, however, still not enough. We recognise that, for achieving sustainabledevelopment, there is a need to increase visibly the higher education outputs so that atleast one half of the active population would have some kind of advanced qualification. Thisleads, in most cases, to a situation of clear financial impossibility — unless more productiveways of achieving massification were to be found.One of these ways was put into being by the creation of the U.K. Open University, in1969. Designed to provide higher education to large masses of students and to achievedemocratisation of access, it grew steadily into a very large system with complete credibilityin academic terms, as well as before public opinion.Many other such dedicated institutions, operating as single-mode distance learningsystems, were created in Europe and in all regions of the world, with remarkable success.However, this type of university requires considerable initial investments to begin operatingand governments now seem to be reluctant to create new such institutions.© Universidade AbertaE d u c a ç ã o   a   D i s t â n c i a           P e r c u r s o s2914. New Ways in UniversitiesGiven the high institutional status and, sometimes, the century-long tradition ofuniversities, they are not easily persuaded to reform their ways or to accept new principlesof operation. Due to their high inertial mass, universities tend to oppose any change ofmethods and practices, whenever this is found to conflict with their culture. It is a culturebased on the individual power of academics, sometimes thinking themselves as absolutekings in the sphere of their cathedrae. They also tend to reject any involvement orresponsibility over financial and administrative matters, ars gratia artis and scientia gratiascientiae being their current motto. Rectors are supposed to exist mainly to worry aboutthese issues and to find the appropriate solutions, leaving professors happily safe and alonefor carrying on their important teaching and research duties.Summing up, there is now a severe crisis impending on universities, which may putinto jeopardy their own existence. Some awkward indicators point in this wrong direction:• Most universities are not productive enough in their main function of producingqualified individuals for their insertion in the civil society. The ratio between theyearly successful output of graduates and the yearly student intake is too low; theaverage number of years spent in the university is visibly larger than the normalisedduration of programmes;• Many entrepreneurial organisations do not take any more for granted the qualityand relevance of university diplomas and degrees, preferring to recruit newmembers of their staff by submitting candidates to ad hoc selection procedures,including examinations about their scientific and technical competence;• Due to the same reasons, new corporate universities begun to appear, in view oftaking in their own hands the training of their staff;• The international value of degrees and diplomas has declined, mainly due to theimpossibility of assessing, from afar, the credibility and honourability of so manydifferent foreign teaching institution;• This same problem is aggravated by the appearance, in many regions of the world,of a large number of private organisations claiming university status, whosecertificates and diplomas may have a doubtful value.One possible way out of this dilemma is the adoption, by otherwise conventionaluniversities, of open and distance learning (ODL) methods in their teaching operations.© Universidade Aberta292Homenagem ao Professor Armando Rocha TrindadeTaking into account that they have already most of the necessary technologicalinfrastructures, as well as a corpus of qualified professors, the marginal cost of launchingdistance learning initiatives is comparatively low, and the capacity of the institution can beexpanded visibly, without a proportional increase in operating costs.This is the way chosen recently by a large number of universities worldwide, thusbecoming dual-mode or mixed-mode ODL systems.While this is not too complicated to achieve in material and organisational terms,there are some difficulties of cultural order to overcome. One of them relates to the role ofthe professor, who is supposed to become, first of all, an author of learning content.Moreover, professors are not keen about having someone else to interfere in their tasks;but this will happen of necessity, for instructional designers, producers, media directorsand task managers will have to contribute as well to this end, within their respective fieldsof competence.Professors are also not keen of having their students’ results analysed and discussed,pedagogic strategies questioned, teaching and student support quality monitored at all times— but this must occur as a matter of routine procedure. Actually, in an ODL context, pedagogiccompetence is as much necessary as scientific prestige, and this is not usually the acceptedrule in conventional universities.5. NetworkingThere are many advantages in inter-institutional co-operation in the field of ODLoperation. Taking into account that the production of quality learning materials is a keyissue in this field (but also, unfortunately, the most expensive part of the correspondinginvestments) it is obvious that sharing this task, its costs and the corresponding use ofmaterials, creates synergies and reduces expenses, to everybody’s advantage.It takes, however, some cultural adjustments for a professor in a given institution toaccept that a distinguished colleague from another institution will be given the responsibilityof authoring his or her own course materials. From the same perspective, it is only fair thatthis same person will supervise the corresponding examinations, on behalf of bothinstitutions, and this is even less palatable…Networking, as all collaborative processes do, will require for each partner torelinquish some parcel of its own power, for the common benefit of the partnership. This is© Universidade AbertaE d u c a ç ã o   a   D i s t â n c i a           P e r c u r s o s293difficult to achieve, and the more so that institutions are very reluctant to sacrifice even thesmallest part of their sovereignty.This is the reason why the best-working networks are based on strict parity of status,mutual trust and respect, close cultural affinities. Networks based upon national or regionalcommon goal and strategies; capable of creating their own collective identity and sense ofpurpose are much more likely to succeed than those of highly heterogeneous nature do.Nevertheless, even in the most favourable conditions, successful networking requireslots of effort, careful planning and a special sensitivity to inter-institutional and inter-personal relations, easily bruised or hurt. Advantages should be shared, but also difficulties;each partner must see other partners’ interest with as much keen attention as their own.6. Multinational Higher Education InitiativesWe must take as certain that the advances in ICT’s and the new concept of VirtualUniversity will contribute to the globalisation of education and training, through theapplication of ODL methods in transnational contexts.Virtual universities are just distance-teaching systems designed so as to take fulladvantage of the intensive use of INTERNET in performing most ODL functions and tasks:the distribution of learning materials, students’ access to bibliography, tutoring, providingstudents with support mechanisms, diffusing information and data. Due to the fact thatthese functionalities are independent of location and distance, they can easily be transposedto transnational operation.Differences in language are no longer considered to be a major hurdle, English havingbecome a sort of foreign vehicular language in high-level international relations. We mayquestion the more serious problem of the cultural compatibility of the content of learningmaterials, which may render irrelevant the best-designed materials when used in the wrongcultural, social and even geographical context.There is, however, a serious risk that “multinational” universities (we use the wordbetween commas to establish its parallel with multinational enterprises) will in the futurecreate their own “globalised culture” like it happens with Coca-Cola, Mac Donald’s, Bennetonand Microsoft, making their ways and mores accepted everywhere, despite local and nationalcultures and perhaps overcoming them.© Universidade Aberta294Homenagem ao Professor Armando Rocha Trindade7. Higher Education in EuropeIn higher education as in any other field of human activity, the only way to win againstexternal competition is to improve the quality and the attractiveness of the local productsand services.European higher education institutions have been well placed in the field, being inthe past wholly respected in the internal as well as in the international scope. They are not,however, fully prepared to cope with the sharp increase in demand that is appearingeverywhere; nor are they capable of assuring efficient lifelong education for all citizens ofthe Information Society.There is a clear need for non-conventional ways of delivering quality education andtraining in Europe, so that its workforce remains well qualified and, hence, making nationalenterprises competitive enough in the international scene. Many ODL systems havemeanwhile been created for this purpose, as single-mode, dual or mixed-mode systems;consortia, networks and alliances have been launched to increase synergies in this field.But we believe that all higher education systems in Europe have to contribute visibly in thiseffort of conceptual and methodological re-conversion, so as to assure the general andprogressive increase of qualifications of its citizens.European universities have a long tradition of quality and prestige, when usingconventional methods; they now need to learn how to deal with new methods and approachesand to get used to working together, so that they increase their global capacity whileconserving their quality, improve their image and win the challenge of the new millennium.© Universidade Aberta

University identity and university interchange

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