The Role of Universities in Modern Society

A. O. Moscardini Visiting Professor, Northumbria University, UK

alfredo.moscardini@northumbria.ac.uk ORCID ID- 0000-0003-4951-0848
R. Strachan. Deputy Pro Vice Rector. Northumbria University, UK
rebecca.strachan@northumbria.ac.uk
T. Vlasova, Visiting Research Fellow Northumbria University, UK
tanya.vlasova@northumbria.ac.uk ORCID ID 0000-0002-5000-6756

Abstract
This is a conceptual paper that examines the origin and development of universities and their current role in
global society. There has been an unprecedented and exponential growth of technology and artificial
intelligence capabilities over the past ten years which is challenging current working practices and affecting all
areas of society. The paper examines how this role may change to match the new demands placed on them by a
digitally enabled society that has greater leisure time. The design of the paper is first to detail some of the
changes in work practices that are taking place and how these will impact on society. It then offers several ways
in which universities could modify their role to respond to these emerging challenges. This could include new
courses, new organisational structures and new pedagogical practices. The paper provides a platform for
discussion and debate around the strategic vision and direction of travel for higher education.

Keywords: Emerging technologies, universities, prosumers, robotics, organisational structures.

1. Introduction
Universities have always played a significant role in the development of society. (Barrow, 1990; Diamond,
1992; Pederson, 1997; Ridder-Symoens, 1992; Ruegg, 2004) Over the last ten years, there has been an
unprecedented and exponential growth of technology and artificial intelligence capabilities which is challenging
current working practices and will play a prominent role in the way that society develops.. This is often heralded
as the fourth industrial revolution. (which is known as Industry 4.0). The authors consider it most important to
study how the role of universities need to be modified to meet this challenge and develop proactive responses to
the new form of society that is emerging. The paper analyses how this role developed and considers how it
could be modified to form part of an overall international strategy.
This is a conceptual paper based on the opinions of three experienced practitioners, who have worked with
higher education institutions from across the globe. It integrates their current understanding of the role of a
university and how it can respond to the demands that will be placed on it through a more digitally enabled
society. It begins by examining the origin and development of universities and then considers their current role.
Then, two hypotheses are examined: (1) that the increased efficiency and innovation developing through
Industry 4.0 will affect the type and number of jobs for humans; (2) this will have significant effect on the
lifestyle of the population. These hypotheses are supported by secondary data in the form of extensive research
in literature, publications and on-line information. Erik Brynjolfsson coined the phrase: “Digital Athens”
(Spencer, 2017). The Athenian citizens had lives of leisure which they used to learn and create (largely because
they had slaves to do the work). We can consider robots as the new slaves which will free up more hours in our
week. The question now becomes “what will people do?” The thrust of this paper is that this query presents an
opportunity for universities, but to respond they must modify their role in society. Using the participant-
observation experience of the authors who have spent their working lives in universities, the paper concludes
with their vision of a new role for universities that will meet this challenge.
2. The purpose of a university
Homo Sapiens appeared on this planet, probably in Africa, around three hundred and fifty thousand years ago.
Via different branches, the species developed the capability to use symbols, the ability to speak and form social
groups and, finally, to harness technology. This creative aspect of Homo Sapiens eventually led to Homo Faber
i.e. “doing man”. Because of his physical limitations, Homo Faber had to make things to control his
environment. Clothes are invented to keep warm, fires for cooking and houses built to live in. There were two
important consequences arising from this. Firstly, Homo Sapiens began to associate the world in terms of
“things” particularly things that they had made. Secondly, this led to a distinction between work and play which
is not shared by other species. Because “things” were so important, the activity of making (called work) was
valued at the expense of not doing (play). Thus, today, there are more rewards for work than play.
This creative urge (both to understand and to manufacture) was instrumental in the founding of the universities
(Segre, 2015). From the very beginning there was a tension between the academic role and the vocational role
which differed from country to country. Are the requirements of the job market a major factor in determining

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the purpose of a university and how much should their structures align with the demands (political, economic,
cultural, social) of society? It is important that universities are clear as to their role as there can be
consequences. According to finance figures published by the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency, the total
number of universities in deficit rose from 40 in 2016-17 to 47 in 2017-18. Data for England show that 32 out of
134 Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) posted a deficit in 2018, up from 24 HEIs in 2017 and just 10 in
2015-16 (HESA, 14). Thus, the purpose of a modern university and whether they are they fulfilling it is an
important research topic which is addressed by this paper. This section now examines the development of the
purpose or role of a modern university from an historical perspective.

2.1 The Origins of the University

The first university is thought to have been the Academy formed by Plato in Athens in 387 BC. Membership
was exclusive and there was no clear distinction between teachers and students. Its role mirrored Plato’s
philosophy and concentrated on producing an “educated “man – a citizen of Athens. This used some
combination of:
“Savoir d’etre” – WHAT - what exists, exists - understanding and meaning (brain);
“Savoir faire” - HOW to do it – vocational training (hands);
“Savoir vivre” - WHY we do it – recognising ones place in Society (heart).
The balance between these three roles was thought to give birth to Wisdom. The curriculum was divided into the
“trivium” consisting of Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric, (teaching how to express oneself and one’s ideas) and the
Quadrium consisting of Arithmetic (for Finance), Geometry (Geography), Astronomy (knowing one’s place in
the Universe) and Music (achieving inner harmony). These Greek philosophical thoughts (especially those
promulgated by Aristotle) were dominant in European society for more than a thousand years and had a direct
and prominent effect on the development of European universities.
The first European universities date back to Medieval times. The earliest are Oxford and Cambridge in England,
Salamanca in Spain, Padova and Bologna in Italy. Their role was to train priests and they were subsidised by the
Catholic Church in Rome. The paper now analyses how this role changed in different nations and how these
changes have led to the current role of a university.
2.2 The Development of Higher Education in France.
Throughout Europe, around the time of the Renaissance, the emphasis switched from religious to more
specialised institutions. In France, this trend was encouraged by Napoleon who wanted trained civil servants
to run the country. This vocational aspect had a significant effect on the structure and role of modern French
universities creating the present “Grandes Ecoles” - relatively small and highly selective schools. These are
well funded, have smaller classes and employ top teaching staff. The students have the status of army officers
and the top Ecole “the Polytechnique”, has always been ranked in the top ten universities of the world. They
provide a cosseted higher education to the nation's future elites - tomorrow's "haut fonctionnaires" (senior civil
servants), leaders of industry, top military brass, top politicians, engineers, physicists and others (HAL, 12). It is
a paradox that despite their historical preoccupation with equality, the French higher education systems is very
elitist as these Ecoles are extremely selective. Since 1960, they have produced 5600 senior French civil servants
and 2900 from overseas.
They teach the “baccalaureate” which is normally a six-year programme and there is an emphasis on links with
business and industry. They employ visiting lecturers from home and abroad and the teaching of foreign
languages is important. They often incorporate a year abroad into the curriculum. Until the 1990s there was a
strong emphasis on logic, scientific knowledge and business studies. This vocational training was useful at the
national level but was not enough for international challenges. To meet these challenges, the Grandes Écoles
strongly invested in language training, work placements outside of France and education on international issues
(Lazuech, 1999). The adoption of the Bologna process in the mid 1990s led to a dual pedagogy alternating
between training for action and methodological reflection (Calmand et al, 2009).
The present teaching role of the Ecoles tends to favour savoir faire and savoir d’etre. Research is conducted in
universities and public research institutes including the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-
National Centre for Scientific Research), INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - the National
Institute of Agricultural Research) and INSERM (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale -
National Institute of Health and Medical Research). These public institutes are very prestigious. The CNRS is,
for example, the leading research institute in the world in terms of number of scientific publications. Recently,
these institutions have come under attack and President Macron is planning to close down the ENA (Ecole
Nationale d’Administration. The complaints against ENA are myriad: most of its students come from the
highest social strata, about half are from the Paris region and, although the proportion varies, significantly less
than half of its students are female (FT, 8).
2.3 The development of Higher Education in Germany.
The key figure in German Higher Education is Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767 –1835). In 1811, he opened the
Humboldt University in Berlin which became the most progressive university in Europe. It used a holistic

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system integrating arts and science, theory and practice. Systematic learning and education through art and
music were regarded as just as important as mathematics to the training of the mind. The ability to think
critically was more important than strict vocational training. "Knowledge is power and education is liberty" was
Humboldt's credo
(DW, 5). When Humboldt died in 1835, he left behind the idea to nurture educated, confident citizens,
independent of their class or family background. Humboldt's cosmopolitan, liberal-minded educational
philosophy remains a utopian ideal in Germany and still serves as a model for present-day school and education
policy although regional political interests and packed curricula are beginning to appear. Humboldt University
(now the University of Berlin) is one of the leading European universities. The German model stands in great
contrast to the French system, both in execution, syllabuses and ideals. There is a strong element of savoir-vivre
in the curriculum. The model unifies teaching and research and promotes Lernfreiheit (freedom of study which
is different to the more prescriptive French curricula) and Bildung (based on the savoir-vivre philosophy of
ancient Greece). There is corporate autonomy for universities despite their funding by the state and the notion of
academic freedom. The educational reformers included philosophers like Fichte and Schleiermacher as well as
Humboldt, and Berlin University became a focus of a national cultural revival. The German model has had a
profound influence throughout central, eastern, and northern Europe (Anderson, 2004).
2.4 The development of Higher Education in the United Kingdom.
A major influence on universities in the UK was Newman (1801-1890). His book “The Idea of a University” is
still regarded as a major work affecting UK education.  Newman defined the main purpose of a University as the
provision of a “liberal education” which, in his words, is
“a comprehensive view of truth in all its branches, of the relations of science
to science, of their mutual bearings, and their respective values.”
He believed in the cultivation of mind which he defines as “a properly trained and formed intellect which grasps
what it perceives through the senses” (Newman, 2016). Newman returned to the classic Greek tradition of the
liberal arts of the medieval university which comprised grammar, rhetoric, logic and mathematics (sub
subdivided into geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music) (The Cardinal Newman Society, 22). Newman
believed that students studying these subjects, as they were “acknowledged to be the best instruments of mental
cultivation and the best guarantees for intellectual progress,” would be able to master other areas of knowledge.
He believed that after completing his version of a liberal education, students could, for example, proceed to a
professional degree such as medicine as well as what could be called an arts degree. Later, this version of a
“liberal arts curricula” was expanded to include both science and theology. These ideas resulted in a top elite
headed by Oxford, Cambridge and Durham who established a collegiate system i.e. a student enrolled in a
college rather than the university. Most syllabi were classical, and Science was not taught well. In the late
nineteenth century, eight more universities were formed. These were Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester,
Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, Reading and Bristol. The system was elitist and in 1950 only 20 000 degrees were
awarded against a total of 500 000 today. At this point, the English universities had assumed an academic role
and the phrase “ivory towers” was often used to describe them
There was a continual increase in Higher Education after the second world war, in particular in the 1970s after
the formation of the polytechnics. Enrolment rose from 3.4% in 1950 to 8.4% in 1970 (Bolton, 2012). The
polytechnics were seen as providers of technical competence and were similar to the German ideal. Many did
not have medical and law schools but concentrated on a more vocational role, teaching the skills needed for the
local area. There was a strong connection to industry. They were seen as a central and essential part of the local
community involved in regional development and local economic growth and had a strong vocational role in
society. (see figure 1)

Figure 1. The Polytechnic Ideal

Although many thought the polytechnics were a good idea, government policy dictated their change to “new”
universities which eventually happened in the 1990s. The number of universities then increased from 56 in
1990 to over 150 in 2019. These developments set up a distinction between the “old” universities and the “new”
universities which still exists today. Many of the new” universities are still trying to follow the polytechnic
ideals

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Currently, the roles of an English university are usually stated as Research, Education and Knowledge
Exchange. Knowledge Exchange is “the transfer of ideas, research, expertise or skills between universities and
business, communities, the third sector and government” (Sweeney, 2018). A typical example of Knowledge
Exchange in the UK is the Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs). This is a UK-wide
programme that has been helping businesses for the past 40 years to improve their competitiveness and
productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK Knowledge
Base. A Knowledge Transfer Partnership “serves to meet a core strategic need and to identify innovative
solutions to help that business grow” (UKRI, 29).  
Despite the imposition of university fees in the UK in the 1990s, demand for places continues to grow.
However, some of the new universities are now struggling. All rankings reflect the three roles and achieving a
balance between them is problematic. The spectrum varies between highly research-oriented establishments
such as Oxford and Cambridge and the more vocational role taken by the new universities which arose from
their polytechnic origins. In most rankings, the top fifty universities are mainly what could be termed as “old”.
In general, the English curriculum tends to be savoir-faire.
2.5 The development of Higher Education in the USA.
The early US universities were strongly influenced by the UK model. Harvard College was founded in 1636 and
first focused on training young men for the ministry. Yale College was founded in 1701 and the New
Light Presbyterians in 1747 which was later renamed Princeton.  Similarly, Brown University,   the University
of Pennsylvania and  Rutgers University were all formed around the same time. All the schools were small, with
a limited undergraduate curriculum based on the liberal arts. Students were drilled in Greek, Latin, geometry,
ancient history, logic, ethics and rhetoric, with few discussions and no lab sessions. Originality and creativity
were not prized, but exact repetition was rewarded. Many students were younger than 17, and most of the
colleges concurrently operated a preparatory school. There were no organized sports or Greek-letter fraternities,
but literary societies were active. Tuition was very low, and scholarships were few. Many of the students were
sons of clergymen; most planned professional careers as ministers, lawyers or teachers. By the 1820s, there was
a growing demand to replace Greek and Latin with modern languages. The reformers failed, and the classical
languages continued as the centrepiece of the rigid traditional curriculum until after the Civil War. Summarizing
the research of Burke and Hall, Katz (1983) concludes that in the 19th century:
1. The nation's many small colleges helped young men make the transition from rural farms to complex
urban occupations.
2. These colleges especially promoted upward mobility by preparing ministers, and thereby provided
towns across the country with a core of community leaders.
3. The more elite colleges became increasingly exclusive and contributed relatively little to upward social
mobility. By concentrating on the offspring of wealthy families, ministers and a few others, the elite
Eastern colleges, especially Harvard, played an important role in the formation of a North Eastern elite
with great power.
At the beginning of the 20th century, fewer than 1,000 colleges, with 160,000 students, existed in the United
States. Explosive growth in the number of colleges occurred in bursts, especially in 1900–1930 and in 1950–
1970. State universities grew from small institutions of fewer than 1000 students to campuses with 40,000 more
students, as well as a network of regional campuses around the state. In turn the regional campuses broke away
and became separate universities. To handle the growth of K–12 education, every state set up a network of
teachers' colleges, beginning with Massachusetts in the 1830s. After 1950, they became state colleges and then
state universities with a broad curriculum (Wikipedia, 31).
It appears that patterns set in the early decades of the 20th century are persisting today. States in which private
institutions had a substantial presence in the more distant past, and in which higher education received scant
public support, continue to exhibit similar patterns. Those that entered the union earliest had, in the early 20th
century and continue to have today, lower public college enrolment rates and lower state subsidies for higher
education. The weight of history appears to matter considerably in state-level indicators regarding higher
education (Goldin and Katz, 1999).
2.6 Models from the developing world
History shows that most African nations strove to establish at least one national university immediately after
independence. The major purpose for establishing universities in these countries was, and still is, for the
institutions to play a pioneering role in addressing problems of poverty, social disorganization, low production,
unemployment, hunger, illiteracy, diseases, that is, the problems of underdevelopment, which appeared to be
common on the African continent. Insurmountable political, social, economic, legal, ethnic, demographic and
technological problems have continued to threaten the very existence of most new African nations and their
people. Yet, governments have continued to invest heavily in the education of a selected few, whose direct
contribution in solving these problems has not been objectively establish (Mosha, 1986).

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Since 1980, higher education access and endorsement have grown more dramatically in Asia than in any other
area of the world. Both developed and developing nations are witnessing rapid expansion in the higher
education sector. Nor is this progress entirely quantitative: a number of Asian universities are on a par with the
finest institutions of higher education in the United States and Europe. Until now, however, there has been little
historical analysis and virtually no comparative analysis of Asian higher education. This volume offers a
detailed comparative study of the emergence of the modern university in Asia, linking the historical
development of universities in the region with contemporary realities and future challenges. The contributors
describe higher education systems in eleven countries - Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, India, and Japan - and explore similarities and differences through
two comparative essays. Each case study includes a discussion of the nature and influence of both indigenous
and European educational traditions; a detailed analysis of development patterns; and a close examination of
such contemporary issues as population growth and access, cost, the role of private higher education, the
research system, autonomy, and accountability (Ahmat, 1980; Altbach and Umakoshi, 2004).
Colonization was of great significance to the course of higher education in Latin America, and the spirit of the
colonial period was interwoven in the Church. In the 1800’s, numerous countries, including Chile, Ecuador, and
Colombia, signed contracts with the Catholic Church, or modelled their constitution on Catholic values,
declaring themselves Catholic states. Spanish America's universities were created to serve the Church and state
simultaneously. They often functioned by the authority of “Papal Bulls” and Royal Charters and eventually
included law, medicine, and economics, etc.  Entitlement and access to education was associated with class and
continued to be an issue (De Wit et al, 2005).
2.7 Are Modern universities pathologically autopoietic?
The purpose of an organisation defines its “WHY” - why it exists -what it is designed to do? A role is defined
as the actions or functions that an organisation assumes to achieve its purpose. It is “purpose” that defines
“role”. Two Chilean biologists, Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, coined the word “autopoiesis”
(meaning self-production) to define Life. Living systems are autopoietic, non-inanimate systems are not. From
their work came the phrase “pathological autopoiesis.’ This is when the end (purpose) gets confused with the
means (role). An organisation whose purpose is excellence (i.e. to satisfy its stakeholders) will succeed. An
organisation whose objective is simply to make money might do so but might not be an excellent organisation
(Maturana and Varela, 1991). It is therefore of prime importance to clearly define the purpose of a university
and this paper has illustrated how this changed and took on different roles in different nations over the centuries
In the modern world, there is an obsession with grades and ranking. Universities are not exempt from this trend,
and several rankings have been developed - many of them using competing criteria. There are world rankings
(THE, 23) which score the top 500, 1000 or 3000 universities (which are of doubtful significance) and there are
national ones. Currently, in the UK, the NSS (National Student Survey) score is considered important. This
results in an obsession with the NSS from Universities, but the NSS is a very arbitrary matrix and it is difficult
to drill into its results. Each university should clearly define its purpose (usually by a mission statement) and this
will normally include the benefits to the nation and society in which it resides. If the university is then diverted
into achieving a high rating (in whichever ranking it decides to follow), then it will prioritise its roles in a certain
manner to achieve this. Then the rankings usurp the purpose and the universities begin to exhibit pathological
autopoiesis. Pathological autopoiesis describes a state where the organisation only sees the world in its own
terms. Its own sense of itself and desire to maintain itself looms so large in its vision that it sees and interprets
the world in highly prejudiced ways. It can no longer see the truth about the world Its purpose becomes self-
preservation. (Beer, 1985) The outcome of such behaviour is its eventual demise. In the authors’ opinion, this
could be happening to many UK universities with the attendant consequences.
3. Methodology
The paper triangulates secondary data (from research publications), primary data from expressed opinions of
university staff, students and the general public with the personal observations of the three authors who have
experience of working in and with universities across five continents of the world. Two hypotheses that
underpin the logical thread of this are now examined.
3.1 The first Hypothesis
The first hypothesis can be stated as “the increased efficiency and innovation developing in Industry 4.0 will
affect the type and number of jobs for humans” There has been an exponential growth of robotics and Artificial
Intelligence which is anticipated to profoundly affect the working practice of many people in the next ten years.
It is therefore apposite to consider this in greater detail. The idea of creating robots is not new. It goes back more
than two thousand years to the Greek myths where “beings that were made (not born) appeared in tales such as
Jason and the argonauts, the bronze robot Talus, the fire bringer Prometheus, the genius craftsman Daedalus and
Pandora, the evil fembot, created by Hephaestus, the god of invention” (Mayor, 2020). Modern science has
allowed many of the myths to become reality. What follows describes some of the technical advances in the last
five years that will have a significant impact on employment. In many of these examples, we see the rise of a
new term “prosumer” which is formed from the two words “producer” and “consumer”. The customer becomes

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their own producer. This began in self-service establishments such as petrol stations, fast food restaurants and
on-line shopping but is spreading fast to many other activities such as travel, supermarkets and banking.
Wherever it occurs, jobs are lost. This trend was famously anticipated by Toffler (1984) but is now extensively
researched (Ritzer and Jurgenson, 2010; Humphreys and Grayson, 2008).
3.1.1 Transport
According to the Publications Office of the European Union, the transport sector accounts for 4.5% of total
workforce in the European Union. Any significant moves towards mechanisation, will have a large impact on
employment. Homo Faber has constantly improved the speed and ease of transport. In one hundred years since
the production of the Model T-Ford progress has been astonishing. The current breakthrough is electric
driverless cars in which Google has already invested billions of dollars and conducted more than two million
miles of testing with only two accidents (Business Insider, 2). This threatens the whole ethos of car ownership
and will also have a profound effect on climate change and the built environment.
But it is not only the automobile that will be affected. Virgin Galactic is a spaceflight company which is
presently developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists and
launches for space science missions (Wickipedia, 32). Elon Musk has plans for what is called a hyperloop. This
is essentially a train system that Musk calls "a cross between a Concorde, a railgun, and an air hockey table". It
is based on the very high-speed transit (VHST) system proposed in 1972, which combines a magnetic levitation
train and a low-pressure transit tube. It evolves some of the original ideas of VHST, but it still uses tunnels and
pods or capsules to move from place to place. Musk has likened it to a vacuum tube system in a building used to
move documents from place to place. Speeds of 700 mph are being suggested for journeys using the hyperloop
(pocket-lint, 20).
3.1.2 Fashion
The fashion industry, taken as a whole, is a major provider of work to adults. One in eight of the world’s adult
population works in the fashion industry, from growing cotton crops to sewing garments for retail. There are
many changes taking place. Rakutin, which is an innovative retail solutions company, has recently launched
“ Fit Origin, Essential Edition” – which is an online fitting service for fashion merchants. Using the service,
merchants can provide their online customers with an alternative to traditional sizing charts in the form of a
personalised sizing recommendation. Customers can specify their height, weight, age, bust and body shape to
have the recommendation engine determine the best possible fit for each of the merchant’s garments (Rakuten,
21). This is an example of a connected Store which uses technology to enhance the customer experience.
StitchFix can even design new clothes based on customer data (HBR, 13). Matches Fashion has a 3-D body
which customer can customise to see what clothes look like on them and is providing a virtual replication of a
changing room. The latest Matches Fashion App allows customers to do all the above three actions i.e.
individually creating their own personalised clothing and it is also guaranteed to be delivered in seven hours
(Vogue, 30).
3.1.3 Health
In the 1960 TV Sci-fi series Star Trek, the ship doctor “Bones” has an instrument called a “tri-recorder” which
diagnoses illnesses. The Japanese have now created a device which actually does this. By inserting one’s hand
into the device, the diagnosis of 80% of known diseases is possible (Hackaday, 11). Non-invasive surgery has
been around now for twenty years and is progressing into cellular surgery. Crisp-Cas9 is a unique technology
that enables geneticists and medical researchers to edit parts of the genome by removing, adding or altering
sections of the DNA sequence. It is currently the simplest, most versatile and precise method of genetic
manipulation (CRISPR, 3). These advances indicate that it is not only manufacturing jobs that are at risk but
jobs that were considered “more human” will also be affected.
3.1.4 Manufacturing
The manufacturing industry is a key sector in many national economies and is involved in creating sustainable
economic growth. (Behun et al, 2018). The rise of robots has a direct effect on employment, but another area is
the rise of 3-D printing. Most people associate 3-D printing with making objects such as cups and saucers in
plastic which is how it started but there have been impressive developments. In China, they are already 3-D
printing 6-storey office blocks (De Zeen,, 4). By 2027, 10% of all production is predicted to be 3-D printed
Smart phones will get 3-D printing possibilities. Feetz is a new company which allows one to design and make
your next pair of shoes.(NY Times, 19) The pharmaceutical companies are 3-D printing (from cellular material)
human livers and kidneys so they can test their drugs without harming the recipient (3D Printingindustry, 1).
3.1.5 Farming
Agriculture and food related industries provide over 44 million jobs in the EU including regular work for 20
million people within the agricultural sector itself. Many of these jobs are now under threat. There will be a
$100 agricultural robot in the future which will allow farmers in the 3 rd World to become managers of their
farms rather than working all day in the fields (Google, 10). Aeroponics is “the process of growing plants in an
air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium (known as geoponics)” (Modern Farmer,
18). Aeroponic culture differs from both conventional hydroponics, aquaponics and in-vitro (plant tissue

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culture). Unlike hydroponics (which uses a liquid nutrient solution as a growing medium and essential mineral
to sustain plant growth) or aquaponics (which uses water and fish waste), aeroponics is conducted without a
growing medium. Water will be produced from cheaper electricity and desalination. The first petri dish to
produce VEAL was cheaper than cow-produced veal in 2018. This could release 30% of surfaces now dedicated
to animals. It would also cut down on the production of CO 2 by the flatulence of animals which will reduce
global warming (Gizmodo, 9).
3.1.6 Law
Even the legal profession is not immune from these changes. There are big questions around the role of AI in
law, not least around whether privilege still exists when “advice” is provided by a robot? Robots are not legal
professionals so currently that is not possible. It is currently debated whether the robots can become regulated
by the professional bodies? The software used by law firms to “advise” clients is improving at incredible speeds.
The AI based computer system “Watson” can answer 33,000 different questions from 33,000 different
customers at the same time and could be the new customer service assistant. It is designed to connect with
customers thus increasing customer satisfaction and, therefore, cutting costs. It was specifically developed to
answer questions on the US quiz show Jeopardy. In 2011, when it competed against two former winners Brad
Rutter and Ken Jennings, Watson received the first-place prize of $1 million. It had access to 200 million pages
of structured and unstructured content consuming four terabytes of disk storage including the full text
of Wikipedia. For each clue, Watson's three most probable responses were displayed on the television screen.
Watson consistently outperformed its human opponents on the game's signalling device, but had trouble in a few
categories, notably those having short clues containing only a few words (IBM, 15).
One of the tasks of a lawyer is to keep up to date with the latest rulings. They spend hours poring over legal
documents and past cases in what amounts to expensive research, a cost passed on to the client as billable hours.
ROSS, 'the world's first artificially intelligent attorney' powered by Watson, recently landed a position at New
York law firm Baker & Hostetler handling the firm's bankruptcy practice. The machine is designed to
understand language, provide answers to questions, formulate hypotheses and monitor developments in the legal
system. It depends on what ultimately is the role of the lawyer. The part of the role that answers questions or
produces precedents could be taken over by software. But lawyers would argue that their role is becoming much
more intuitive. Either way, changes in law practice will occur (Mail Online, 17).
It is considered that these technological advances will greatly affect employment. It is estimated that 70-80% of
all jobs will disappear over the next 20 years (Ford, 2015).
3.2 The Second Hypothesis
The second hypothesis is that this change in employment will have significant effect on the lifestyle, needs and
aspirations of the population. New jobs will be created, but it is not clear whether there will be enough to
satisfy demand. This is a serious problem which is generating interesting solutions such as a n “alternate
income” for everyone regardless of whether they work or not. There has been much discussion about what form
this “alternate income” could take. One such idea is called the Universal Basic Income (UBI). The UBI would
be a guaranteed income for every resident of a society or economy which would provide enough for living i.e.
food, housing and sick care. There are various ways that this could be paid for. It is argued that simply by
abolishing all means testing (a very expensive exercise) enough money would be available to fund such a
policy. It would not require major changes in taxation and people would be free to work and earn as much as
they desired above this basic payment. It is hoped that many people would devote their activities to cultural
enterprises and recreate a common sense of identity (World Press 33). Four arguments for a UBI are : i)
reduced bureaucracy, ii) reduced cost, iii) reduced rent-seeking (i.e. under a universal program there is less
space for political exploitation or benefit fraud), and iv) a reduction in the state’s ‘invasive/paternalistic’
tendencies, as there is no longer a need to categorise beneficiaries as the deserving poor. (Zwolinski, 2015).
Funding such an income would seem a problem, but it could be offset by stopping all other forms of benefits
and would not involve major changes in taxation. On the other hand, Varoufakis (2017), and Gada (2016) have
each suggested that the labour savings from automation could (and should) pay for UBI. Varoufakis’ proposal is
one-part wealth tax and one-part ownership restructuring: a small tax is levied on shares from every initial
public offering put into a Commons Capital Depository that in effect grants citizens property rights over new
technologies that yield financial returns. The Commons Capital Depository would then pay out a UBI to all
citizens. Varoufakis sees this as potentially alleviating “irreconcilable political blocs, while […] reinvigorating
the notion of shared prosperity,” largely due to reframing understandings of when wealth is a result of hard
work
vs. context and luck especially in the face of technological unemployment. (Evonomics 61) People who had
work and wanted to continue could do so and would not lose the UNI. They, however, would be taxed. It is
hoped that many people would devote their activities to cultural enterprises and recreate a common sense of
identity. (Economic Justice 62) The funding will initially need a very large cash injection but, eventually, will
be self-regulatory as the money will just circulate around the economy.
Another way that has been advocated by the likes of Bill Gates, is a tax on the use or ownership of robots (RT).

7
It is noted that this should not come from company profits but be funded by the national government. (FT 63)
Taxing things that allow more production does not conform to current economic theory. It is believed that such
taxes would deter investment. (The strategist 64) However, from the standpoint of Weller (2017), investment in
robots cannot be compared to investments in operating coal-fired generators: they increase the industrial
production, but also increase social costs, which economists call a negative externality.
If these two hypotheses are accepted, then there will be a large section of society without full time employment
but with a living wage. This will present a challenge for the future role of universities. Using their participant-
observer viewpoint, the authors now suggest a possible role.
4 The “University of Tomorrow”
In an age of unprecedented high enrolment across the globe, it is paradoxical that universities are losing their
grip on higher learning as the Internet becomes the dominant infrastructure for knowledge and information –
both as a repository and as a global platform for knowledge exchange between people. The transformation of the
university is not just a good idea, it is imperative for their survival. It is not enough to participate in excellent
schemes such as the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and the Institute of Coding (IoC, 16). There is a need for
a radical overhaul of the present system. Changes are needed in all aspects of a modern university:
 a new role of the university in an age of increasing unemployment needs to be defined and established;
 an entirely new modus operandi for how the content of higher education – the subject matter, format of
course materials- texts, written and spoken word and other media- needs to be created and delivered;
 a new organisational structure must be developed to accommodate these changes. This new structure
should be self-adaptive i.e. be able to anticipate changes and so allow the university to respond quickly,
within the bounds of its capabilities.
4.1 New Research Role
The research role for the university (Savoir D’etre) is still needed. Our quest for knowledge will not diminish
and it is presumed that the universities have an inbuilt repository of clever minds. They must, however, fight to
retain this role. In France, there are specialised research institutes, in the UK, many companies are setting up
their own research departments as they claim that this is easier to control and organise. There are many
environmental problems that need more research but, one must guard against moving away from curiosity-
driven research towards research with immediate real-world impact. Both are needed. There is a downside to
separating research and teaching but the changes that are taking place in the world are forcing this issue. Three
examples of the dangers facing independent university research are:
 In 2018, the Hungarian government announced that 70 per cent of the 40 billion forint (£110 million)
budget allocated to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) would be transferred to the new
Ministry of Innovation and Technology, which would be in charge of funding the HAS’ network of 15
research institutions and more than 130 research groups at universities co-financed by the academy.
The new ministry, has launched a “programme of excellence” which requires research centres of the
academy to apply for their entire budget by submitting tenders that must relate to one of four broad
topic areas: secure society and environment; industry and digitalisation; health; and culture and family.
These areas have been defined by the government and are fixed. Public universities and state-controlled
research centres will also be able to submit grant proposals only in these areas. The document adds that
the proposals will be “assessed but the evaluation principles are unclear, allowing for arbitrary,
politically motivated decisions” and the move will lead to “the complete loss of academic
independence for the Academy specifically and for scholarship in Hungary in general” (THE, 24).
 In 2019, concerns over industry influence on Canadian university research came to a head with a court
expected to rule on whether a transcript of a meeting in 2015 between academics and representatives of
the agrochemical giant Monsanto can be released. Some academics believe that the 2015 meeting was a
strategy session to thwart public scrutiny of research collaborations with Monsanto – something that
the participants deny. But campaigners have said that the institution should allow scrutiny of its
relationships with industry – especially with a company that attracted controversy for its role in
developing agrochemicals and genetically modified crops and was accused of inducing allies in
academia to downplay potential safety risks. The concerns over industry influence go far beyond the
transcript of a single meeting. Canada has long had one of the highest percentages of industry support
for academia and is especially reliant as a consequence of its natural resources. This raises the question
of who decides on the topics for research and the freedom to publish results that go against the grain.
Large multinational companies have a vested interest in publishing results that will boost their profits.
This is perfectly understandable in terms of their viability but is where the university can take a lead
and play a significant role for society by ensuring that there is an independence and integrity in their
research (THE, 26).
 There is a tendency that lawyers are becoming the arbitrators of academic responsibility. There have
been several cases in the UK where publishers have refused papers to reduce the risk of libel claims. A
recent survey discovered a “chilling effect” from the threat of libel, causing authors to self-censor

8
 (Wogan, 2010). Now something yet more chilling stands in the way of meaningful scholarship: profit-
driven academic publishers letting lawyers determine their academic responsibilities (THE, 27).
A recent film “Weitermachen Sanssouci” (its English title is Music and Apocalypse) is perhaps the first film to
tackle the discontents that have dominated debate about universities over the past 10 to 20 years such as
invasive levels of research assessment, a utilitarian focus on student employability and shady deals with
commercial partners. It makes for interesting viewing (THE, 25).
4.2 New Modus Operandi.
Any new teaching role must answer the questions: what should be taught, how should it be delivered and what
impact will this have on the role of the university staff. As Industry 4.0 will radically transform the competence
profiles for workers, it will be necessary to provide more appropriate training strategies. In the short term (when
there is still employment), workers will need what has come to be known as “soft skills” These skills can be
defined as character traits and interpersonal skills that characterize a person's relationships with other people. In
the workplace, soft skills are considered a complement to hard skills, which refer to a person's knowledge and
occupational skills. They are often a neglected factor in the workplace. Teaching “soft skills “addresses the
need to learn how to work together, manage diversity and reduce emotions in management processes which.
can stimulate good teamwork and thus improve performance at work. It is ironic that these skills approximate to
what was taught at Plato’s Academy under the Trivium curricula. Their function is identical – to enable an
individual to express themselves and show themselves in the best possible light.
In the long term. as the rise of technology changes the work patterns of society, the emphasis will be away from
“How to do it” but more to “WHY we are doing it”. This, then, brings in courses concerning Ethics, Morality,
cooperative working (taking into account cultural differences) and the effect of our activities on the planet
(Ecology). In a recent keynote address at MIT, Miyagawa repeatedly emphasised the ethical implications of
research so that we don’t have a doomsday scenario with AI which will be used to serve us instead of it?”
(Miyagawa, 2019). He predicted that traditional liberal arts skills, such as creating ideas and communicating
them, can only grow more valuable in a heavily computer-aided world. Such a curriculum is returning to the
original concept of Plato where just as the Academy prepared “good” Athenian citizens, the modern university
should be preparing “good” global citizens. Thus, for the future leisure-based population, a new role for a
university could be to provide “a purpose for living”. Activities and learning can take place that will
meaningfully fill the new leisure time. This could mean an emphasis on the creative and dramatic arts such as
poetry, creative writing, rhetoric (the art of speaking), drama and music. The university can also satisfy a thirst
for knowledge and provide courses on philosophy and understanding the universe (the Sciences). People can be
shown how to cooperate rather than compete.
The underlying mindset behind these new curricula is that of a different thinking paradigm, Systems Thinking,
which sees all activities as interconnected. System Thinking takes a holistic view rejecting the idea that
independent parts can be identified and that it is a mistake to concentrate on parts without looking at the whole.
Teaching this paradigm needs an interdisciplinary approach which will affect the structure of the university. The
story of Building 20 at MIT is an interesting example of how interdisciplinarity can flourish. It was initiated by
the needs of WWII and was a temporary, badly constructed building. The construction paradoxically made it
ideal for collaboration and innovation as it could be easily manipulated to cover needs. Another factor in its
success was the disparate array of departments that occupied the building. It stayed up until 1998 because it
became an ideas factory. Radar was perfected there. The science of modern linguistics took shape there under
Noam Chomsky. It housed labs in nuclear science, cosmic rays, and food technology. Control terminals used by
the Tech Model Railroad Club became the computers on which early hackers tinkered in the early 1960s. The
magic that created Building 20 was special because a building of this construction, layout and inhabitants had
never before existed but it shows that it is possible (Bergstein, 2014). Today, in the US, there are many
initiatives that are promoting inter-departmental learning (Bear and Skorton, 2019). Two hundred courses across
the USA that are integrating knowledge and pedagogies from diverse specialities have been catalogued. This
demonstrates that interdisciplinary education is possible in universities.
Stakeholders of higher educational institutions have realised the need to integrate up-to-date technologies to
alter teaching methodologies for the betterment of the education system as a whole. This has led to the
adoption of educational technology solutions across various institutions. The answer is not simply to expand
the distance learning offerings and use MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) although this would help.
Rather they must use today’s technology to embrace new collaboration and social models of learning that
change the actual pedagogy in more fundamental ways. There is encouraging progress in developing automated
systems that will make online courses more efficient by helping students identify areas where they struggle and
by repeating and reinforcing sections as needed.
The top three emerging trends driving the global higher education M-learning market are: the r ise in
gamification of m-learning, growing government initiatives and the emergence of new HTML standard (Siraj
and Norman 2012). Nobody can predict with 100% accuracy, but the authors believe some of the most
important delivery methods for education over the next five years, are the following:

9
  E-Textbooks - a move toward in-house produced e-books. This allows for greater localisation, faster
updates, and greater customisability to our curriculum. Furthermore, it allows students greater
opportunities for interacting with materials and accessibility on mobile devices which can increase the
opportunities for informal contact with the content. On a more general level, it is clear that publishing
companies like the idea of e-textbooks since old e-textbooks cannot be resold or leant to others. That
would provide an increased stream of revenue for the university. This is now happening. Library spend
is now increasingly focused on e-books and articles rather than hard copies. The purchase of hard
copies is gradually being phased out (EdTech, 6).
 Online learning - This is an important ongoing trend that will continue way into the future. The
popularity and success of many reputable universities offering distance education courses has
significantly legitimised distance learning modalities as routes to achieving qualifications. As more
reputable and traditional universities offer courses leading to a qualification, the legitimation of those
qualification will also increase. Distance programmes are also a good way for traditional universities
to increase revenue, so there are compelling economic incentives for many universities to offer
distance learning courses.
 Use of MOOCs - This is sometimes labelled as a 'disruptive' movement in education, but it continues
to grow. It is a very important trend in that it attempts to decentralise formal education.
 Using technology to enhance learning such as online group chats, podcasts, and other interactive
learning tools. There is, of course, a development cost with such tools, if only in staff time. Once they
are produced, the role of university staff will have to change. We already see schools and universities
using tablets and other mobile devices to deliver content, assess student learning, and engage in various
learning tasks. It still is not clear how pedagogy should be changed or adapted to fully exploit new
technologies to make learning more effective and engaging. New technologies that can be applied to
various educational domains are emerging every day, so the possibilities appear to virtually limitless. A
suitable candidate for such delivery is the mobile App. The recent advances in technology, coupled
with the popularity of social networking, has opened up new ways of delivering training. Ubiquitous
ownership of mobile devices by young people and the rise of Internet and mobile network
infrastructure are now considered as a means of resolving current access and consumption challenges to
training and at the same time improving training effectiveness. A case can be made to develop a mobile
application that can make multi-media training courses available through digital devices that trainees
are very familiar with and use regularly in their everyday lives.
There has been much concern that media-centred pedagogies are not as effective as traditional ones. This may
be true but the improvements in such pedagogies is following the same growth curve as AI innovations. The
authors believe that these improvements will eventually overcome such criticisms.
4.3 New Purpose
The purpose of a university today has changed since its medieval origins and the authors suggest that it will
have to change again to accommodate the significant under employment in the second decade of the 21 st
century. Changes in purpose mean changes in structure. “A system is a what a system does” is a very profound
saying by Stafford Beer (Beer, 1985). If an organisation is set up in a certain way, then this will affect the
behaviour of its members. To accommodate the changes outlined in this paper, the organisational structure must
change. This is not an idealistic vision of the future. If society changes as predicted in this paper, then the
universities will have to respond or perish. Some suggestions for a new vison, purpose and structure for the
University of the 21st Century are now given
The purpose of the university must be re-evaluated to account for the anticipated changes in employment. It is
suggested that the emphasis should move from savoir-faire (teaching how to make things) to savoir vivre (how
to live one’s life with a different employment pattern). The routine of leaving the house at 08.00 every morning
and returning in the evening will no longer be the norm. People will be sharing jobs, working part time, or as
suggested above not working at all but still obtaining a living wage. Their task will be how to fill in their
increasing leisure time. This will create a new role for the universities. It will require new teaching materials,
new ways of delivering the material and a new mindset for the university staff. Universities would revert to the
Greek, Humboldtian and English polytechnic ideal.
If the purpose of a university is to encourage enquiring minds, then maybe the staff should challenge certain
shibboleths such as:
 Is employability the overriding objective?
 Is research is an essential role of a university?
Research is becoming pathologically autopoietic. Maybe the French system of research institutes and
teaching establishments could be introduced
 What is the value of a degree?
In the UK, there is now degree inflation where the number of first-class degrees has increased. This has
caused doubts in the mind of employers as to the value of the degree and even now, many companies

10
 are starting to devalue a degree in their recruitment process. If the emphasis changes from HOW to
WHY then will degrees be necessary at all? As the emphasis is away from Savoir faire to Savoir-vivre
then does it make sense to give a certificate or degree stating that the bearer knows how to live? How
would one accredit such a process? The success of the new teaching is that it fulfils its purpose and the
recipient has a purposeful and useful life.
The role of a new university should move towards the concept shown in Figure 3. Its purpose will be primarily
to satisfy the needs of the local community whilst contributing to the national economy. Its teaching aim will be
to provide a purpose to the lives of people who have much more leisure time than now. The emphasis will be on
the process rather than artificially contrived outputs. It will be nearer to the Humboldt model synthesising arts,
science and technology.
4.4 New Staff Mindset
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. Plutarch 45 AD
This quotation is extremely relevant to today’s society and should form the underlying manta of any university
teacher. Teachers as broadcasters and transmitters of knowledge to an inert audience in a one-way linear fashion
will become obsolete in tomorrow’s world. Their role will be more of a mentor and a guide to learning. They
will have to take note of the advantages of Wikinomics i.e.
 Openness, which includes not only open standards and content but also financial transparency;
 Peering, which replaces hierarchical models with a more collaborative forum. e.g. the development of
Linux;
 Sharing, which is a less proprietary approach to products, intellectual property, bandwidth, scientific
knowledge;
 Acting globally, which involves embracing globalisation and ignoring "physical and geographical
boundaries" at both the corporate and individual level (Williams and Tapscott, 2011).
The new purpose should adopt a holistic and interdisciplinary approach and it is suggested that all staff must
embrace the Systems paradigm. The new structure should move towards becoming “a learning organisation.”
This is an organisation that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself. The
concept was coined through the work and research of Senge (1990). It emphasises, shared vision, improvement
of personal skills and teamwork. An application of these ideas to the university is shown in Figure 2.

Big Data and

Intelligent
AI

p UBI
Mentors
O Research
P Funding

U learning
experience
L Skill
Enhancement
A Researchers

T
I
O Repository of
N knowledge

Figure 2. The University of the Future

Research staff will work together in interdisciplinary groups. The research topic should first be defined and then
funding sought. This will reduce the potential of external interference. The criteria for success will not depend
on number of research papers but on the quality and usefulness of the work completed. The research will be
open ended and encourage freedom of expression. Each research team will be self-monitoring and exist only as
long as is needed. The new structure will be housed in the Research School which has no teaching responsibility
(in contrast to the current situation which encourages staff to be both teacher and researcher) . The research staff
will receive the UBI topped up by whatever funds they attract. Funding will be shared by the team among its
members. The typical researcher will be someone who is attracted to savoir-d’etre and is passionate about
learning and creating. It will not be a fast track for fame or wealth and would only be appealing to maybe 20%
of the population.

11
The new university will favour the teaching role more than the research one. The university will be a repository
of a myriad of skills. It will have a proactive and a reactive function.
 The reactive function will be towards groups of interested learners (students) who will band together
and approach the university to offer courses on their particular interest.
 The proactive role will be to use Big Data and the Software algorithms to discover what areas of
learning are currently in demand. These could then be advertised. This is starting to happen. In June
2019, a pilot study launched by the Quality Assurance Agency provided 10 UK institutions with a
dashboard displaying real-time feedback from student review websites and Facebook. Using an
algorithm to assess the comments, researchers found a close correlation between the views expressed
online and institutional performance in official assessments such as the teaching excellence framework
and the National Student Survey (THE, 28).
The role of the “teacher” in each case must change to a mentor or guide. The purpose of the learning is to
progress the interests of the group. The “learning” can take place anywhere (face to face, online, at a distance)
and thus the need for large lecture theatres will diminish. The new architecture will involve more smaller rooms
and spaces where cooperation can flourish.
Both the research school and the learning school will need management. As far as possible, this will be by the
teams themselves. Managers will be elected by the teams and be for a fixed term of three years. The
management role must be seen as an important and essential one but inferior to the research or teaching roles.
The improved AI and software algorithms should reduce the number of managers needed.
4.5. New Organisational Structure
The present system of departments and faculties is not systemic and is certainly not conducive to
interdisciplinary work. A new structure needs to be developed and with it, an appropriate career paths and
promotion structure. This is the most difficult change to make as the present structure is deeply ingrained in
minds and hearts. People even question if another way of organising a university is possible. Here, the
university could learn from industry which is facing similar organisational challenges. The move in Industry is
towards small autonomous groups which are flexible, agile and interchangeable. There is a strong emphasis on
quality, but the onus is placed on the individual not the process. The Japanese have developed the” kaizen”
system meaning “self -improvement.” There are a few British (mainly Scottish) universities who are
experimenting with what the term “The Lean University” (Robinson and Yorkstone, 2014 & 2016). These
processes are in an experimental stage, but this does not diminish the need for such changes.
5 Conclusion
This paper traces how the traditional role of a university has developed through the ages and argues that the
current rate of unprecedented change demands a new role and structure. The findings and discussions suggest a
different role in modern society. The university will be seen as a means to create a social network of friends and
colleagues, to generate respect, self-esteem, self-efficacy coming from doing something one enjoys, a sense of
being needed and a meaning to life in being a part of something larger than oneself (Tegmark, 2017). This is a
return to the traditional role developed from the Greek model. Some substantial changes to the structure of the
university are also suggested. At first sight, the suggestions may seem impractical and unrealistic. There would
be major financial implications. In current society, this is true, but the authors believe that society itself will
undergo radical changes in the next decades and therefore radical solutions are both needed and will be forced
on the universities. The question is whether modern universities should be proactive or reactive in their response
and the paper offers a debating platform to stimulate discussions and answers to this question.
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