Global Ethics for Leadership

(Marcin) #1

342 Global Ethics for Leadership


ty system fit for its new purpose, combining discipline-specific speciali-
sation and the fundamental promise to make more people aware of the
moral challenges confronting us. This will sometimes require courage to
do something new, try something that may be a little dangerous (given
that universities work with public funds), and take some risk ‘because if
they know it will work, they’ll only get an improvement to what they
already have; yet if they try something that is a little dangerous and new,
they will realise true innovation’.^278 In short, what is required from uni-
versities are safe, funded, entrepreneurial spaces for academic experi-
mentation and management innovation if the goal is to achieve some-
thing creative and truly different. Whilst some universities have already
created such development hubs the practice has generally not yet taken
root.
Today with the ease of internationalisation and student mobility, ed-
ucation has become more significantly globally connected. The new
generation of students will be more diverse and more international than
ever. To keep up with the development, universities participating in the
international arena will be forced to begin to consider creative practices
of accreditation and recognition of qualifications if they are to maintain
any reasonable competitive advantage. Such arrangements will obvious-
ly need to be driven at a national level as quality controls and academic
autonomy and integrity become the core of the decision. Partnerships
and collaborations are rapidly becoming the order of the day as skills
without borders and limited resources are being leveraged for global
communal benefit.
As stated above, one of the key drivers of innovation is technology.
The exponential rate at which new knowledge is created and new prac-
tices and ways of work develop, emphasises the demand for universities
to become more agile in responding to the needs of the time. Our uni-
versities are, however, not designed for this type of rapid shuffle - to
278
BBVA OpenMind - Stanleigh 2013: 2

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