a n n e d e pa e p e
In such a short piece one can only sketch the outlines of the university’s future, but this booklet is intended to launch a series of thematic publications on that future.
t h e b o o k - tow e r h a s c o m e to sy m b o l i s e ghent universit y. it is a monument of i n t e r n at i o n a l sta n d i n g a n d r e n ow n . t h e r e vo lu t i o n a ry d e s i g n c r e at e d by t h e a r t i st a n d a r c h i t e c t h e n ry va n d e v e l d e i n t h e 1930 s i s n ow u n d e r s c a f fo l d i n g . t h e tow e r i s b e i n g t h o r o u g h ly r e n ovat e d , m e t i c u lo u s ly r e sto r e d a n d at t h e s a m e t i m e m o d e r n i s e d a n d m a d e r e a dy fo r the next hundred years. one could h a r d ly i m ag i n e a f i n e r m e ta p h o r fo r o u r ‘ u n i v e r s i t y o f t h e f u t u r e ’.
Dare to Think. Dare to Dream.
This booklet has not just fallen out of the sky. Over the last two years I have had a great many fascinating conversations with colleagues, staff, students and alumni of Ghent University, and also with a number of enthusiastic interested parties from outside the university. These conversations were a particularly rich source of inspiration for ‘Dare to Think. Dare to Dream’. I owe a debt of gratitude to all those I have spoken to on this matter.
Dare
toDarethink. to dream. the future of ghent universit y
a n n e d e pa e p e , r e c to r
‘Why should we not aspire to be among the top ten in Europe and the top fifty in the world? Ghent University often presents itself too modestly. Let us dare to be immodest for a change.’ ‘Ghent University must throw open its doors to the rest of the world, because in all areas diversity is a powerful driver of excellence and is therefore an important key to our future.’ ‘This much is clear: the university of the future can no longer be organised as it is today. Some of our existing structures are literally a hundred years old.’
Dare
toDarethink. to dream.
a n n e d e pa e p e
Dare
toDarethink. to dream. the future of ghent universit y
‘ The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.’ a n n a e l e a n o r r o o s e v e lt
‘I am not so much interested in the past as in the future, because that is where I intend to live.’ a l b e r t e i n st e i n
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n 1st October 2013 I became the Rector of Ghent University (UGent). Now, halfway through my term of office, it is the perfect time to look ahead, not only to 2017, when the university will be celebrating its bicentenary, but also further into the future. Much further. Over the last two centuries our university has developed into a leading academic institution. Both in Europe and far beyond it is known for its pioneering scientific research and first-rate academic education. We not only have a very rich history, but it is also further enriched every day by thousands of students and staff at every level. It is therefore an exceptional honour, as the Rector, to celebrate this special anniversary of our Alma Mater together with the whole university community. But laurels are not meant to be rested upon, and a rich history does not guarantee a golden future. On the contrary. So this anniversary is above all a perfect opportunity to reflect in depth on the following decades and to set out the markers anew.
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It is no coincidence that ‘Dare to Think’ is the flag under which UGent sails. It is not a meaningless slogan, but our common task and even our individual duty as member of staff, student or administrator.
BIOTOPE
So ‘Dare to Think’ also refers to ourselves: what sort of university do we want this to be in the future? And how will that happen? To me it’s quite clear: the future UGent should concentrate on impact and excellence even more than at present, and must also radiate these twin ambitions with total resolution. Ambitions have to be translated into concrete objectives. Why should we not aspire to be among the top ten in Europe and the top fifty in the world? UGent often presents itself too modestly. Let us dare to be immodest for a change.
In the 21st century, the age-old notion of the university as the ultimate place where all knowledge is gathered has been superseded. The exponential growth of knowledge and information occurs in many different places outside the university: in businesses and NGOs, in administrative bodies, institutions and foundations of all sorts. Digital media also allow this knowledge and information to be disseminated ever more easily and bring them within everyone’s reach. The university of the future must remain a unique biotope for both academic education and scientific research. At UGent, these two pillars are already inseparably linked. Cross-fertilisation between education and research is indispensable if we are to continue playing our leading and innovative role. As a pluralist university we must in any case maintain the breadth of our intake and welcome our many future students with education of the highest standard that is constantly fuelled by good-quality scientific research.
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In the education it offers, the university of the future should not only provide insight and depth in all this knowledge and information, but must also teach students to handle it in a well-considered, responsible way. We already do this, but tomorrow’s education will no longer look like today’s. The way UGent organises its education at present can no longer be compared with that of ten or fifteen years ago. We no longer need to squeeze hundreds of students together in huge lecture theatres. Blended learning, with digital interaction between lecturers and students, has replaced much of the passive transfer of knowledge. Lecturers use several forms of teaching and classes are organised into smaller groups, using the most up-to-date technological resources. Individual contact between students and lecturers is increasing. This whole area of evolution will be explored even further. We shall also increasingly take advantage of the interrelation between different disciplines. The first small-scale but important example of this was the Innoversity Challenge, in which a series of both students and members of staff from various disciplines came up with at least five hundred innovative ideas for the digitisation of education. UGent will put four of these projects into practice and a great many others will be examined at the management level. All these innovative ideas were judged, purely on their quality, by leading educational experts. From this we can learn things for the education of the future and how students and staff can engage in directing its course.
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The content of the subjects themselves will also change. Some subjects and disciplines will probably disappear altogether or will be incorporated into other, newer disciplines. The boundaries between disciplines are blurring and the university of the future will offer integrated subjects to sharpen young and critical minds and teach them to see interdisciplinary connections. This will also make the strict division into pure and applied sciences and the humanities less clear-cut. Why should the UGent not play a pioneering role in this? All our students should be given the greatest possible chance to succeed, and in fact more than one chance. A wide range of resources is currently employed to support students who find things more difficult. But resources and structures are also needed to give extra stimulus to the most talented students. Why should we not organise university classes in English for leading students who pass a demanding entrance exam? If we are to maintain our great reputation as an educational institution, we must above all develop our students’ talents over a broad range. This is what the Bachelor years are for. In these initial years of study, we sharpen their critical minds and open up their view of the world. The UGent wants to educate its students to be true citizens of the world. This may sound rather grandiloquent, but that does not make it any less our ambition. It is therefore crucial that we employ our best lecturers and researchers in the Bachelor period. The Master years focus fully on the further exploration of the chosen subject, on the basis of high-grade scientific research and with a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary work. 13
EXCELLENCE
We can for example organise the education of the future in schools that offer a range of related courses. Scientific research can for example be carried out in departments that coordinate and direct complementary research groups. A two-part structure of schools and departments would ensure both a focus on content and cooperation on concrete objectives. This emphatic focus and intensive cooperation are absolutely necessary because, as a university for the future, UGent opts for the full pursuit of excellence. It is impossible to excel in everything and so we shall clearly have to make choices. In which areas of research are our successful research groups already at the top of their game? In which other fields do we want to reach the top? Why should we not form larger, multidisciplinary research units with no strictly demarcated structure around a limited number of well-considered choices, like our present research groups?
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These new clusters would then be able to determine the major thematic lines of their research themselves, and evolve in accordance with the results of their research. Let us, with a certain sense of poetry, call them ‘clouds’, which can change colour, shape and composition, which can merge and divide, clouds which sometimes move slowly and then rush on hastily. This ‘cloud’ model enables people to develop their talents and respond rapidly to current research and educational needs. This method can yield the most surprising approaches and cooperation that literally opens up new horizons. It is precisely at this point where several disciplines meet that the chance of innovative scientific insights is the greatest. There is already pioneering cooperation now, where high-tech equipment used in neuroscience is combined with insights from cognitive psychology, or where information technology experts carry out research with communications and art academics. There are more such examples. It is this sort of cooperation that the UGent wants to stimulate.
It is not the intention to build new fixed structures, but to enhance the dynamics of scientific research at the UGent even more. In this regard, the university should not concentrate only on applied research requested by and with immediate use to or profit for businesses and the economy. We have to continue investing in risky and original fundamental research. If this were no longer to be done at the university, it would not be done anywhere. Fundamental research has changed the world in the past and will undoubtedly continue to do so in the future. Clouds are not tied to any boundaries and so our clouds too should break down the boundaries between subjects and disciplines. So the boundaries are no longer rigidly fixed for our researchers either. No one need remain tied for ever and a day to one single discipline and no one is the exclusive owner of a subject. People should not feel imprisoned by strictly divided and delineated scientific disciplines. That belongs in the nineteenth century. The academic freedom to choose research topics remains an essential and fundamental condition for scientific research. But every academic should be aware that this freedom must not lead to unfettered individualism.
The UGent is already providing extra finance for these sorts of cross-disciplinary topics, but similar multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary cooperation is undoubtedly possible in many areas.
To excel also implies multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary thinking and working. We not only have to look over the garden wall, we actually have to demolish it.
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So the new models for education and research inevitably have repercussions for the academic staff. We shall for example have to give even more opportunities to excellent researchers to let them go as far as they can with no restricting straitjacket. These firstrate researchers not only have an impact on society, but also put the whole university institution on the map and in this way bring added value to the UGent. They often attract substantial additional resources which we can in part redistribute to everyone’s benefit. In short, in the structure of the renewed UGent, with its schools, departments and clouds, the easy internal mobility of staff is crucial for their creativity. For this purpose, the university of the future needs less rigid employment regulations for all workers, both academic and support staff. In this regard, the UGent adheres to what are called ‘the new working practices’, which revolve around staff autonomy and involvement. We need high-performance support departments that provide high-grade logistical services to the whole university community and which see to the professional management of careers and talent. These services are indispensable if we are to create the stimulating biotope in which education and research flourish and enthusiastic people with bold ideas are given every opportunity to develop.
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MEASUREMENT
As a university we measure and evaluate an enormous amount, in both education and research. But do we always do this effectively? We naturally need figures and evaluations in the assessment of our work and our staff, but these instruments should not dominate everything or determine almost all policy decisions. To give an example, we count all sorts of publications and how often they are cited. Important steps in a career sometimes depend on this sort of measurement. Scientists must of course publish their work, because this remains an important criterion. But it should not become ‘publish or perish’, since it is precisely because of this pressure to publish that research involving little risk is chosen rather too often, whereas researchers in fact have to dare to take risks. So taking risks should involve additional rewards. This is perhaps a somewhat severe summary of the way we currently evaluate whether we are doing well as an institution or as an individual staff member using quantitative criteria. It would be better to abandon this, at least in part, because as a result of it, both research and education end up in too rigid a straitjacket whereby everything and everyone is compared with each other. In this way, there is a danger that quality and quantity might become completely separated. 25
To achieve our ambition of becoming a top-ranking university, we must above all develop quality criteria. How can one evaluate quality? You cannot evaluate whether a scientific research project is worthwhile just once, when it starts. It is above all the result, the output, that we have to compare with quality worldwide, in reputable peer-reviewed journals. But the social impact is also a quality criterion. We are still not engaging sufficiently in this sort of quality review.
DIVERSITY
Education and research are jobs for people, preferably the work of men and women with varied backgrounds and origins. The UGent plays a pioneering role in bringing about more gender equality in all sorts of boards and bodies, yet female talent still remains under-represented at many levels of management. In addition, in both its student population and its staff, the UGent still insufficiently reflects the diversity of society. We can focus our policy more tightly in both areas. The pursuit of diversity should be visible in the students we attract, but also in the whole of our recruitment policy. How many male or female candidates from abroad succeed in our selection procedures? Too few. How many brilliant alumni from other Belgian universities are recruited? Too few. At least three quarters of our professors are alumni of the UGent. Is this a coincidence? The UGent must not become a closed shop, but must throw open its doors to the rest of the world, because in all areas diversity is a powerful driver of excellence and is therefore an important key to our future. So we have to cultivate this diversity much more and in all its forms throughout our operations.
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IMPACT
The UGent has many eminent researchers; some are international authorities in their disciplines. The stubborn clichĂŠs regarding academics in their ivory towers have long been superseded, yet our university sometimes radiates too little authority and has too little impact on social debate. We have to dare to engage in this debate, both as an institution and as individual academics. We have to sharpen our focus on the many problems and challenges that confront society. We have to add substance to the debate, and devise and propose solutions. From climate change, through health, spatial planning, and social, economic and political issues, to ethical problems and everything connected with the organisation and refinement of our democracy. University researchers want to solve problems, preferably socially relevant problems. We are in fact obliged to do this as a service to the community that largely funds our university. Together with our local and international partners, we have an important role to play as a catalyst for innovation in every field. This not only opens up a huge spectrum of possibilities, but is at the same time a fine example of giving something to society in return.
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When does a university have an impact? When you operate across the boundaries of sectors, disciplines and institutions, but above all those between countries. In this sense, the university of the future will be one without borders, which makes internationalisation a key concept. The UGent is working hard on internationalisation: to attract excellent foreign students, Masters and Doctors, to expand our range of English-language education and to establish both topic-based and institutional partnerships. We also aim to send even more of our students abroad than we currently do. In fact it should also be natural for our researchers to engage in international mobility. It goes without saying that immersion in an international environment is valuable for the personal development of both students and researchers. It enhances self-confidence and stimulates an open and unprejudiced view of the world. We have to follow and explore all these international paths even more. As an institution, the UGent has in the meantime taken a major step by setting up its brand new Global Campus in South Korea, thereby opening the door to Asia and the Far East. So we have to be involved with the problems of both today and tomorrow in order to offer added value to the whole of society and to have an impact. For this purpose, excellent education and excellent research are indispensable.
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GOVERNANCE
This much is clear: the university of the future can no longer be organised as it is today. Some of our existing structures are literally a hundred years old. What will the new structures actually look like? How shall we organise new governance? There is no ready-made model for this, but there is already an abundance of good ideas. What we need above all is more powerful and flexible structures. There is no need to wipe the slate clean, but we must adapt, refine and dynamise everything that stands in the way of future-oriented policy. Boundaries between all manner of entities that have evolved historically but are now no longer relevant often restrict creativity and excellence. So the university of the future is definitely not an archipelago of islands large and small, but is based on the notion that the UGent as an institution is more important than any faculty, department or research unit. As a dynamic institution we probably need a more compact board of directors that takes the interests of the whole institution to heart. We need a knowledgeable advisory board with representatives of all the important sections of society. And why, for example, do we not
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organise a think-tank to follow up the interrelation of academic education and scientific research and also set out the lines for the future?
DREAM
To keep the ship on the right course and sometimes make rapid adjustments, we shall in any case have to be bold enough to assign sufficient autonomy, including powers and resources, to the right levels of administration. New structures involve material aspects too. Buildings, classrooms, campuses etc. should in the first place be inviting, open meeting places and comfortable places to work. This applies to both new and existing infrastructure. To this end, the UGent has a series of plans that are now being carried out, but they alone will not be sufficient. How are we to make the UGent physically more visible in the city and its surroundings? This is another question we have to ask ourselves loud and clear.
Shaping the UGent of the future with all the various aspects I have briefly touched upon is no easy task. Nor will it be done overnight, but will require a plan spanning several years that enjoys broad support. This is not just one rector’s dream of a distant horizon. It is all about ambitions held by many. Today’s students, staff and administrators want, by means of innovative research and high-standard education, to make the UGent into an international player among those at the forefront and pursue this ambitious dream every day. So the future is not a dream‌ This, therefore, is my enthusiastic message to all who have the UGent close to their heart: let us join together in reflecting deeply on our future prospects and use our tremendous imagination to attain them. Dare to think. Dare to dream.
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Anne De Paepe (Ghent, 4 October 1955) is a Professor of Human and Medical Genetics. In 1993 she was appointed head of the Centre for Medical Genetics at the University Hospital in Ghent. Under her leadership it expanded into a major multidisciplinary centre for genetics. Since 1 October 2013 she has been the rector of Ghent University.
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Š 2016, Borgerhoff & Lamberigts nv. Coordination: Wim De Bock & Pieter Vanderhaegen Design: Evelien Degeyter Photography: Michiel Hendryckx With thanks to Mark Coenen and Jan Lippens Printed in the Netherlands First impression: May 2016 No part of this publication may be reproduced and/or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.