Re-imagining the role and function of higher education for alternative futures through embracing global knowledge futures

摘要

Weak signals from the early twentieth century indicate the emergence of new ways of thinking and knowledge patterns, which will be key drivers of change in the next 100 years. Significant developments can be mapped in most, if not all, of the major academic disciplines. In parallel, there is an emerging movement to integrate knowledge, to move beyond the fragmentation of knowledge associated with disciplinary specialisation via inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary approaches. In the current dominant model of higher education, disciplinary and ideological siloism thwart appropriate knowledge transfer—thus limiting the larger project of knowledge coherence so necessary if we are to cope with the complexity we must expect of the next 100 years. I propose that higher education can best be re-imagined through deeply embracing new ways of thinking and new knowledge patterns.