Global Values in Higher Education 339combines social vision, including understanding of global issues, with
efficient managerial skills^271. This is key because a second contributor to
the failure of organisations is ‘the failure of moral virtues [...] lack of
truthfulness, trust and social responsibility’^272. The ethical dimension of
higher education is not an add-on or a ‘nice-to-have’ construct when
developing vision and mission statements or trotting out the various
stakeholder reports.
Responsible leadership will acknowledge the importance of technol-
ogy as a driver for change and as a tool for the facilitation of an efficient
and effective transactional environment. However, concomitantly, re-
sponsible leadership will equally recognise that embracing ICTs indis-
criminately will ultimately result in greater disservice to affected stu-
dents. Not all students have equal access to technology, connectivity and
devices and forcing unprepared students into the 21st century ICT milieu
will cause inevitable disadvantage due to a simple case of ‘fundamental
lack of appropriate support’. This is the harsh reality of so many stu-
dents in the developing world, who, because of circumstances, require
different and more nurturing pedagogical approaches that cannot be pro-
vided by technology alone. Emerging research is also beginning to call
into question the rather gung-ho claims of quality online education and
there is evidence of a process of re-evaluation around the actual value of
technology in pedagogy. Responsible leadership in the 21st Century
University, whilst preparing students to be global citizens, will be using
data analytics and congruent student profiling to understand resources
limitations and socio-economic circumstances, as well as the diverse and
contextual underpinnings of the student population. This is critical if the
education and learning paradigm is to be truly values-based.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned constraints, the advantages of
technology to meet both the SDGs commitment and confront the ‘iron
271
272 Unesco 1998c Article 13.12^
BBVA OpenMind – Kung 2013: 36