How can we “update” the world’s educational system, particularly the university, to tackle the technological, environmental, and social disruptions of the 21st century?
The Fridays For Future (FFF) climate strike by high school students may well be one of the most important, yet hardly covered stories by the US media today. During the week of March 15th alone, 1.6 million strikers were counted across 125 countries. This environmental movement to reduce carbon emissions was started by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg in late 2018. In the meantime, a discussion has ensued among politicians in Germany about whether it is the right thing for students to take to the streets instead of the classroom on Fridays.
The principles below weigh in on this conversation from a bigger picture view: how to “update” the world’s educational system, particularly the university, to tackle the technological, environmental, and social disruptions of the 21st century. See figure 1.
The classical university was based on the unity of research and teaching; the modern university has been based on the unity of research, teaching, and practical application. I believe that the current historical moment, with one civilization ending and dying, and another being born, invites us to reconceive the 21st-century university as a unity of research, teaching, and the praxis of transforming society and self.
Yet, the current contribution of universities to societal transformation remains unclear. This is because the traditional output of universities — knowledge — is not the missing piece to catalyzing social change. Let’s consider the example of the Paris Agreement and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the current global framework outlining the transformation objectives of the next decade.
The difficulties in implementing the Paris Agreement and the SDGs worldwide are not caused by a knowledge gap. The problem is lack of political will and a knowing-doing gap: a disconnect between our collective consciousness and our collective action. This gap leads us to collectively create results that nobody wants: massive environmental destruction, societies breaking apart, and social media-induced mass separation from our deeper sources of self. To address these profound challenges, we need new platforms and new capacities that upgrade our mental and social operating system from ego-system awareness to eco-system awareness.
Figure 2 maps the evolution of key societal systems in terms of their OS (operating system):
- from 1.0 (input and authority-centric) and 2.0 (output and efficiency centric)
- to 3.0 (user-centric) and 4.0 (ecosystem-centric).
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