Two days
ago Business Week published an article with some interesting insights
by Professor Dan Remenyi who is Co-Editor and contributor to the newly
published book "The University of the Future" still i have
several doubts about it.
First of all, we must not forget the words of Australia
Chief Scientist and also take into account the famous prediction
made by Keynes in 1930, when he wrote that 100 years later people could work only
15 hours per week. A prediction that could not have anticipated that:
"...commonly
available AI technologies will give each of us access to the equivalent of 100 human
experts...to provide all the information and advice you need." https://sciencebusiness.net/viewpoint/viewpoint-why-productivity-going-down-when-technology-accelerating
So i do
believe that we can say that the future of universities in forming experts (as
they did in the past and many still do in the present) does not look bright. At all ! And
even in a short term scenario lets not forget how corporations are
"stealing" students from universities https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/will-us-universities-be-made-redundant-employability-agenda
We must also not forget, at this moment 200
companies alone already produce 40% of all research and this means
that research (although an important mission for universities) will no longer remain as its
core business. Instead, universities will have an important role to play
in curating and validating the research carried out in the corporate sector.
And the reason is very simple. Its very hard to trust the research results of a
corporation if negative results could mean its bankruptcy. https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/monsanto-papers-reveal-company-covered-up-cancer-concerns-a-1174233.html
In my
view there are really only one thing academics can do that corporation cannot
(and will not), which is speaking the truth to power
and expose lies ttps://pacheco-torgal.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-responsibility-of-intellectuals-to.html
Like have
done Dan Carder of West
Virginia University and civil engineer Marc Edwards from Virginia Tech and much more recently also
the 72 years old physicist Ricardo
Galvão who stood up against Bolsonaro brainless rants, an act that
granted him the selection to be one of Nature´s
10 people who mattered in science in 2019 especially in the context of
the climate emergency faced by our Planet (Gardner
& Wordley, 2019)
PS - And last but not least: https://pacheco-torgal.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-role-of-academia-towards-type-1.html
