MAS MOHD DARBY
What makes a good university? In the modern world today, a good university is a world-class university. Jamil Salmi, an Education Economist at the World Bank Washington DC, described world-class university is developing the capacity to compete in the global tertiary education marketplace through the acquisition, adaptation and creation of advanced knowledge (Salmi, 2009). Becoming a member of the elite group of world-class university is not something one achieve as self-declaration. With their rich endowments and storied histories, a select group of Ivy League universities including Harvard, Stanford, MIT or Yale, along with Oxford and Cambridge in the U.K., as well as the University of Tokyo, are routinely place in the top 10 spots of prestigious lists of world-class universities. (Goodaal, 2006).
What makes a good university? In the modern world today, a good university is a world-class university. Jamil Salmi, an Education Economist at the World Bank Washington DC, described world-class university is developing the capacity to compete in the global tertiary education marketplace through the acquisition, adaptation and creation of advanced knowledge (Salmi, 2009). Becoming a member of the elite group of world-class university is not something one achieve as self-declaration. With their rich endowments and storied histories, a select group of Ivy League universities including Harvard, Stanford, MIT or Yale, along with Oxford and Cambridge in the U.K., as well as the University of Tokyo, are routinely place in the top 10 spots of prestigious lists of world-class universities. (Goodaal, 2006).
In reference to the definition above, University today is not just about quality of learning and
research at tertiary education. A good university is founded on a good
tradition where the establishment of the
internal learning culture is being uphold throughout the years by the current
students as well as former students. World-class universities must have
internal culture. A university is not well known on how many first class
graduates they produced each year, but on how strong their culture and tradition
being nurtured each year; along with how many industry-driven research are
being produced. For example university must be a place of intelligence and love
towards education. The university must foster its academic responsibility by
encouraging research and academic freedom in an environment where there is full of ‘love’ that it attract
talent and retain it.
Salmi in his report emphasizes three most important factors
that attribute to world-class universities as 1) a high concentration of talents
(critical mass of outstanding faculty and top students) 2) Abundance resources
to offer a rich learning environment and to conduct advanced research 3) favorable governance (management) that encourages strategic vision, innovation
and flexibility, that enable colleges to make decisions and manage resources
without being encumbered by bureaucracy (Salmi,
2009). In another study, Fujia listed four elements of world-class
universities: 1) Tangible assets (good building and infrastructure), 2) human
resource (first-class faculty, students and administrative staff) 3) university
culture (the love for faculty and the love for students) 4) operational system where
educationist, not administrators run the university, educationist must enjoy autonomy, rights of independent thinking and free expression. It should
operate independently and exercise democratic management in accordance with the law
(Fujia,
2003).
There must be a good correlation between university policy,
academic freedom and academic responsibility. There must be freedom for both
faculty and students to discuss issues and questions without fear of being
terminated or deprived. Freedom must be
given to faculty to continuously conduct research and improve academic capabilities,
not bugged with administrative paper works, taking attendance, registration and
non-value added task or routines. This kills academic tradition and deprived
faculty and professors from knowledge creation and education development. The
university must dedicate to encouraging and nurturing a community of academics
in which the learning and perpetuation of knowledge acquisition of every member
may flourish, if not forever but for a long period of time of their lives. An
institution of higher learning must not be managed like a regime military institution
and a continuity of a school administrative operation. An institution of higher
learning will fail to attract the best brain if it treats its faculty and
professors as school teachers or military cadre.
If an institution of higher learning emphasis simply on paper
qualification, this will develop students who will go against ethical behavior
to get A's and to the extend of stealing exam papers and answer sheets to
obtain good results on paper. In other words, learning in university is not
about achieving a piece of paper, but students must go through the ‘campus
climate’ experience in order to prepare them in the next journey of the outside
world, thus helping the university to develop world-class talents.
It must be reminded that the mission of university education
is to bring out the best of every students. Thus, to become a competitive and
good university, it must offer outstanding undergraduate experiences to the
students. A ‘campus climate’ provide a good platform for student to ‘think out
of the box’ and prepare them for academic adventure and challenging learning
experiences that enable students to achieve a shared learning outcomes, in
addition to superior achievements to develop skills and knowledge in their
areas of studies. Students will fail to be groomed as graduates if they are
continuously ‘spoon fed’ with rigid classroom syllabus and templates. They must
go through intellectually challenging experiences, be independent in learning,
referring to faculty for advise, conducting library research and not provided
with revision sheets or notes to memorise. The campus climate experience is the
most valuable experience for a graduate as compared to lectures and memorizing
of notes for examination.
Mark Yudof, President of University California listed few
points of what makes a university great: quality teaching, accessible
opportunity, creative discovery, committed public service and enlightenment on
every humanistic and intellectual level (Yudof, 2010). A good university
not only teach their students on syllabus and courses, but teach students how
to practice and create new knowledge; as well as encourage innovativeness by developing
and nurturing students to become leaders, researchers, pioneers and thinkers.
Learning from these success stories, I can summarized that campus learning in the university must be
engaging, stimulating and challenging to the students, which will ultimately
offer students an intellectually and holistic rewarding experiences of the
university life, exceeding examinations expectations, beyond classroom lectures
and more than just memorizing of facts or figure; but understanding of knowledge,
application of theories and practice, as
well as critically analyzing new knowledge and information.
In last year’s Transforming Education Summit organized by
ADEC that I have attended, it is worth to note that, UAE is giving more attention to emerging
knowledge economies such as Finland, Ireland, Canada and Korea to benchmark their education
system. These countries do not have top 50 world-class research university, but
they have excellent technology-focus
institutions. (ADEC, 2012). Notwithstanding, a
university should consider the
desirability of creating excellent alternative institutions, besides a research
university; to meet the wide range of education and training needs that the
tertiary education system is expected to satisfy. A university may not need to be
good in academic research but they can be a good university that focused on their
internal strength, where they have reputation with. For example they
must achieve to be top-ranked or best university in Islamic Banking or
Entrepreneurship and build their reputation specifically in this area,
internationally. MIT for example, is a world-class technology university that
integrates theory and practice which are reflected in their internal motto -
“’mind and hand”. Harvard the top world-class university in the world did not
excel in all disciplines.
It is worth observing that while world-class institutions are
often equated with top research universities, there are also world-class
tertiary institutions that are neither research-focus nor operate as universities.
The UK Open University for example, is widely recognized as a leading distant
learning institution in the world. Conestoga College in Ontario is ranked as
the best Community College in Canada. (Salmi, 2009).
As a conclusion, university is not made in a short time.
Creating a culture of excellence and high quality output take years to achieve.
Freedom of academic expression and strong leadership with clear vision are
fundamental to create academic excellence that helps to stimulates internal learning
culture and tradition, thus contribute to capacity building in the country.
REFERENCES
ADEC.
(2012). Transforming Education Summit. Why Transforming Education . Abu
Dhabi: http://www.tes-abudhabi.org.
Fujia, Y. (2003). What Makes a Good University?
Fudan University, Ningbao Nottingham University.
Goodaal, A. (2006). The Leader's of the World Top 100
Universities. International Higher Education The Boston Centre for
International Higher Education , 3-4.
Salmi, J. (2009). The Challenge of Establishing
World-Class Universities. Washington DC: World Bank.
Yudof, M. (2010, September). University of
California. Retrieved February 21, 2013, from Your University of
California: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/youruniversity/archive/2010/september/what-makes-a-university-great.html
