| Resumen: |
It is commonplace to note that we are moving toward a global economy. The world is increasingly interdependent in terms of trade, culture and communication. There is one institution that has always been global and that continues to be a powerful force in the world after a half-millennium. This institution is the university. With its roots in medieval Europe, the modern university is at the center of an international knowledge system that encompasses technology, communications and culture. The university remains the primary center of learning and the main repository of accumulated wisdom. While it may be the case that the university has reached the end of a period of unprecedented growth and expansion, it remains a powerful institution. In the knowledge-based society of the twenty-first century, the university will remain at the very center of economic and cultural development. The contemporary university suffers from a lack of self-confidence and has lost some of the support from society it enjoyed in the past half-century or so. However, it is not, as many critics, within and outside of the academy would have us believe, suffering from a deep malaise that will cause either collapse or necessitate major structural and intellectual renovation. The present and very likely the near-term future, will not be a period of great expansion or of great prosperity for higher education. The coming period will also not see the demise of the university. The university is not flourishing as it did in the golden age of the middle decades of the twentieth century in North America and Europe. Yet, the university is far from collapse. It continues to play a necessary role in modern society-as an institution that educates, performs research, provides opportunities for social mobility and certifies expertise and professional competence. Universities have been transformed in less than a century from small, elitist institutions fulfilling a limited educational mission to one of the main engines of the knowledge-based society. |
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