Preface

The industrial countries of the West have much in common in defining and meeting the great challenges facing their Higher Education systems in the new millennium. Recognizing this, a small group of Western Europeans and Americans, long closely associated with Higher Education, arranged for a Colloquium to examine these challenges
in depth and to propose promising initiatives for meeting them. Toward this end, a group of ten Europeans and ten Americans met in Glion, Switzerland during May 13-17, 1998.

At the request of the members of the “Glion Colloquium”, Professor Frank H. T. Rhodes, President Emeritus, Cornell University, gave expression to the collective views of the participants in the form of this Declaration. The participants are grateful to him for his sensitive and eloquent summary, the first draft of which was circulated to
all participants, who then contributed editorial comments and suggestions.

While the principal focus is on research intensive universities in Europe and North America, significant portions of the Declaration also speak to the colleges and other institutions of Higher Education in both Europe and North America, e.g., information technologies, new patterns of governance, leadership and management, and issues
of accountability.

We thank the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Swiss Science Agency, the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the University of Geneva, the Swiss Rectors Conference and Swissair for their generous financial support. We are also indebted to the Association of European Universities in Geneva which kindly put Mrs. Mary O’Mahony, Deputy General Secretary, at our disposal for the full length of the Colloquium.Werner Z. Hirsch University of CaliforniaLuc E. Weber University of Geneva

Participants and Signators

• Prof. Paolo BLASI, Rector, University of Florence, Chairman of the Italian Rectors’Conference, Member of the Board, International Association of Universities
• Prof. James J. DUDERSTADT, University Professor of Engineering, President Emeritus of the University of Michigan
• Prof. David P. GARDNER*, President, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, President Emeritus of the University of California and of the University of Utah
• Prof. Hans Van GINKEL, Under-Secretary-General and Rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo, Vice-President International Association
  of Universities and Association of European Universities
• Prof. Werner Z. HIRSCH*, Department of Economics, University of California at Los Angeles
• Prof. Stanley O. IKENBERRY, President of the American Council
  on Education, President Emeritus of the University of Illinois
• Prof. Charles F. KENNEL*, Director of the Scripps Institution
  of Oceanography and Vice-chancellor, University of California at San Diego
• Dr Guy NEAVE, Research Director of the International Association
  of Universities
• Prof. Howard NEWBY, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, Vice-Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of
  the Universities of the United Kingdom
• Prof. Jacob NUESCH*, Member of the International Committee of the
  Red Cross, President Emeritus of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
• Mr. Peter PREUSS, President, The Preuss Foundation and Regent of
  the University of California
• Professor Frank H. T. RHODES, President Emeritus of Cornell
  University
• Mrs. Auriol STEVENS, Editor of the “Times Higher Education Supplement”
• Prof. Chang-Lin
  TIEN, NEC Distinguished Professor of
  Engineering, Chancellor Emeritus of the University of California at Berkeley
• Prof. Martin
  TROW, Graduate School of Public Policy, University of
  California at Berkeley
• Prof. Dennis
  TSICHRITZIS, Professor at the University of Geneva,
  Chairman of the Executive Board, German National Research Center for
  Information Technology
• Dr Alan
  WAGNER, Principal Administrator, Directorate for
  Education, Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD Paris
• Prof. Luc E.
  WEBER*, Consul for international Affairs of the Swiss
  Rectors’ Conference, Member of the Board of the International Association
  of Universities, Rector Emeritus of the University of Geneva
• Prof. Harold M.
  WILLIAMS, President Emeritus of the Getty Trust and
  former Regent of the University of California
• Prof. Heide
  ZIEGLER, President of the International University in
  Germany, Rector Emeritus of the University of Stuttgart

• The University at the Millennium

  The new millennium, into which we move and which our children will inherit, confronts us with a bewildering mixture of promise and threat. On the one hand, we glimpse the promise of revolutionary advances in biomedicine, communications, information technology, alternative energy sources, new materials, automation and globalization; on the other hand, we contemplate the looming threats of balkanization, tribalism, terrorism, sectarianism, north-south inequalities, hunger, the intricate balance between population, resources and environment, the challenge of sustainable development and the relationship of all
  these to the future of traditional nation-states. And, if the balance
  between promise and threat is unclear, what is clear is that the essential key — though not the only key — to human well-being in this daunting
  new world is knowledge.

  Now knowledge is not a free-good; it is not a naturally-occurring resource. It is a personal discovery, an individual creation. It comes only to the prepared mind, coaxed into existence by personal reflection and inquiry, individual discovery, sophisticated research and
  costly exploration. And it can be received, understood, and applied only
  by the educated and informed individual. Those things on which the
  future of humankind will chiefly depend in the new millennium —
  education, personal skills, natural resources, effective capacities,
  sustainable communities, as well as wise leadership, informed choice,
  national discipline, sound policies, international agreements, the humane use
  of technology and the judicious and benevolent use of resources —
  will depend increasingly on knowledge: knowledge discovered,
  knowledge gained, knowledge tested, knowledge shared, knowledge applied.
  And these things, in turn, will require wisdom: the way in which
  knowledge is weighed and used.

  Knowledge is the core-business of the university. In every
  aspect of its discovery, testing, dissemination and application, the
  universities of the world play a crucial role. In this role, they are not alone. They are part of a great network of tertiary education; they depend on
  the work of schools and colleges; they are partners with
  professional associations, non-government organizations, industry,
  business, research institutes, hospitals, government agencies and
  international organizations; they share the concerns and contribute to the needs
  of their communities, regions and nations. But, beyond all these
  alliances and dependencies, vital as they are, the universities play a unique
  and crucial role. They are the chief agents of discovery, the major
  providers of basic research that underlies new technology and improved
  health care, they are the engines of economic growth, the custodians
  and transmitters of cultural heritage, the mentors of each new
  generation of entrants into every profession, the accreditors of competency
  and skills, the agents of personal understanding and societal
  transformation. In them, on a daily basis, the young and the old seek to bring
  wisdom, insight and skills to bear in the daunting complexities of human affairs.

  The university is one of the greatest inventions of the present millennium: although created more than nine centuries ago, it
  remains one of the glories of human aspiration and one of the triumphs of
  the power of imagination. We, as members of its community of
  learning, challenge it to play a transforming role in society, and thus to transform
  itself.

  To the university:

  a call to imaginative boldness and responsible freedom

  Universities are learning communities,
  created and supported because of the need of students to learn,
  the benefit to scholars of intellectual community, and the importance
  to society of new knowledge, educated leaders, informed citizens, expert
  professional skills and training, and individual certification
  and accreditation. Those functions remain distinctive, essential
  contributions to society; they form the basis of an unwritten social compact,
  by which, in exchange for the effective and responsible provision of
  those services, the public supports the university, contributes to its
  finance, accepts its professional judgment and scholarly certification, and grants
  it a unique degree of institutional autonomy and scholarly
  freedom. Within this compact, the university has a reciprocal obligation
  for impartial scholarship, the highest professional competence and
  integrity, the cultivation of advanced knowledge and a love of learning among
  its students, and a sensitivity towards the need for its services in
  society at large. The situation confronting all nations — both industrialized and developing — now requires, as never
  before an informed citizenry, an educated workforce, skilled in
  handling changing and increasingly sophisticated tasks, and this, in turn,
  requires not only achieving an optimum level in student enrollment, but also
  the means of providing and pursuing life-long learning. At the very time
  of these new demands, the universities are experiencing severe
  financial constraints, with increasing competition for scarce public funds for
  other pressing public needs. Yet these other social needs demand, in turn,
  a renewed public investment in higher education, as the need
  increases for creative solutions to social problems, sustainable development
  and the expansion of skilled professional services. Wise political
  leadership will be required to sustain long-term investment in learning,
  without which social advancement is an empty dream.

  We call on our colleagues in the universities

  to recognize their unique responsibilities and opportunities
  to their communities, regions and the larger global society by :
  Their affirmation that teaching is a moral
  vocation,
  involving not just the transfer of technical information,
  however sophisticated, but also the balanced development of the whole
  person. That will mean an emphasis on the development of a creative
  learning environment — rather than relying solely on the traditional pattern
  of formal lecturing and “one-way” teaching — the cultivation of a
  student-centered and student-friendly atmosphere and the goal of
  producing not only highly skilled, but also broadly educated,
  self-motivated graduates, with a thirst for life-long learning, aware of their
  heritage, conscious of their civic obligations and ethically responsible in
  their professional careers.
  Their affirmation that scholarship is a public trust. All members of the university community — young and old —
  are committed to learning, and to the discovery and exploration on which
  it is based. Scholarship, though it is rooted in individual insight
  and personal inquiry, is a cooperative venture, supported by public
  funds and private patrons as a social enterprise, because it enriches
  human understanding and contributes to human well-being. That public
  support presupposes the impartiality and independence of the scholar, and
  the integrity of the scholarship. Two opportunities — new alliances and
  the use of information technology — now offer the possibility of
  expanding the range and usefulness of scholarship and providing
  unprecedented benefits to society. Creating new intellectual alliances within the university and
  new partnerships outside it. Traditional disciplines, with their deliberate concentration
  and abstraction, are powerful engines of scholarship but, for all their
  power, they impose self-created canons and constraints on broader
  inquiry. Strong departments, for all their benefits, may restrict the range
  and limit the scope of critical investigation. Strong disciplinary
  expertise will continue to be essential, but, wedded to the insights and skills
  of those from other disciplines and professions, it now offers
  unusual promise in confronting broader public issues.

  Partnership with institutions, agencies and corporations beyond
  the campus can supplement and extend the skills of the academy.
  Scholars have been slow to apply their skills to pressing social issues,
  partly, one supposes, because of their complexity and intransigence;
  partly, perhaps, because of a lack of both means and incentives to
  address them, and partly because the issues are often controversial and
  the risks of failure are high. But society needs the insight and expertise
  of the academy in all areas of great public concern. New alliances,
  new support and new incentives are needed to address them, just as
  the land grant university was created in response to the needs of
  mid-19th century America. These new alliances will not replace the norms
  and canons of traditional disciplines, but will be a powerful supplement
  to them.

  Employing new information technology (IT),

  which now allows the organization of these partnerships on a
  grand scale, whether locally-focussed, or globally-based. This new
  technology can now provide massive interdisciplinarity, and experiment
  and simulation of undreamed-of power. It is likely to transform every
  aspect of the university’s activities, but if its capacities are to be fully
  employed in their learning, research and public service, universities will need
  to encourage flexibility, entrepreneurism, experiment and breadth
  within their organizational structures and among all their members. Recognizing public service as a major institutional obligation and providing the means and
  the incentives to pursue it. For all its independence and autonomy,
  essential as these are, the university has a social responsibility and a
  public obligation. It must use its autonomy, not as an excuse for
  isolation, indifference or advocacy, but as a means of making an
  independent contribution to society, providing an impartial voice and
  professional service to the public good. Providing new structures, flexible career paths and
  selective support for new patterns of creative inquiry, effective learning, and
  responsible public service. Universities have proved remarkably adaptive over
  the centuries in responding to new challenges and novel
  opportunities. Financial constraint will, however, require the future development
  of new initiatives more by substitution, than by addition; this will
  strain existing hierarchies and structures, require new patterns of
  appointment and employment and demand new methods of funding and
  support. Antiquated structures, cumbersome procedures and narrow,
  exclusive career tracks are likely to require substantial modification if
  universities are to make the most effective contribution to changing challenges
  and opportunities. Developing new patterns of governance, leadership
  and management that promote effective learning, creative scholarship and
  responsible service. Universities have prospered to the extent that they have developed an effective and responsive pattern of shared
  governance, which has served them well. This has typically involved a
  three-fold pattern of public oversight and trusteeship, shared collegial
  internal governance and informed — and generally consensual but often
  short-term — administrative leadership. Though the particulars have
  varied with time and place, this overall three-fold pattern has proved
  both durable and effective, but it now shows signs of intense strain.
  Some public governing boards have become more politicized than has
  been historically true, asserting authority over areas once viewed as
  faculty prerogatives; government ministries and state agencies in
  some countries have engaged in micro-management of university
  affairs; faculty councils have sometimes used their powers to promote
  special interests, delay action, and prevent proposed reforms;
  administrative leadership has been seen as too weak in some institutions and
  unwisely assertive in others, while effective management is widely seen as
  the casualty of these competing interests, held hostage to
  indecision, compromise and overlapping jurisdiction. At its best, the
  contemporary university is seen as a model of effective participatory governance;
  at its worst, it is seen as an archetype of bureaucratic bumbling and
  learned inefficiency.

  All universities need to work with their stakeholders to ensure
  the preservation of the benefits of collegial governance and openness
  with the achievement of excellence, responsiveness and effectiveness in
  all their various activities. This will require institutions to clarify and
  redefine jurisdiction and responsibility; it may also require rethinking
  and strengthening the role of the rector/chancellor/president and the
  terms of appointment to this office. Accepting the obligation for accountability. It is the public, through direct state and federal payments,
  tax exemption, voluntary support, corporate contributions and private
  gifts — as well as fees for service — such as student tuition, housing
  charges and patient fees, for example — who sustain the university. To
  them, the university must be openly and appropriately accountable for
  the prudent use of its resources. This accountability requires, of
  course, the fullest level of professional financial reporting and
  independent professional auditing. What it does not mean, however,
  is accommodation to every political pressure, popular-demand, public
  interest, scholarly fashion or social whim, whether from within
  or without. The university must be properly accountable for its
  “output”; the integrity of its scholarship, the quality of its professional
  standards, the impartiality of its judgments and the competence of its
  graduates. But, beyond those things, it must remain sturdily independent,
  yielding neither to internal activist interests, nor to external pressure,
  but changing deliberately, selectively and responsibly, in the light of
  public needs and changing knowledge. Anything less would make it
  truly unaccountable, as well as fundamentally compromising its
  essential function. Affirming the ancient values upon which the academy is established. In a society of shifting
  goals and uncertain values, the university must stand for something
  more than accurate data and reliable information; more, even than
  useful knowledge and dependable standards. The university is the
  custodian, not only of knowledge, but also of the values on which that
  knowledge depends; not only of professional skills, but of the ethical
  obligations that underlie those professional skills; not only of scholarly
  inquiry, disciplined learning and broad understanding, but also of the
  means that make inquiry, learning and understanding possible. In
  its institutional life and its professional activities, the university
  must reaffirm that integrity is the requirement, excellence the
  standard, rationality the means, community the context, civility the
  attitude, openness the relationship and responsibility the obligation upon
  which its own existence and knowledge itself depend. For 900 years of the present millennium, the university, as a community dedicated to those values has
  served society well. Its effectiveness in the new millennium will depend on
  its reaffirmation of those ancient values as it responds creatively to
  the new challenges and opportunities that confront it. This is the
  moment for both society and the university to reaffirm the social compact,
  on which the future of all our peoples will so largely depend, and for
  their leaders to work together towards the achievement of their
  common goals.* * *