Innovative University Models: Strategy and Emergence

Education reform underpins socio-economic renewal for any society. It is insightful to shed light on the gap between post-enlightenment era and 12th century models of universities. The key question is what defines a university in the 21st century? In the last four decades, the work of George Keller about Academic Strategy offers some insights to best practice in strategic planning in higher education. In addition, business strategists argue that a realized strategy is a product of deliberate and emergent strategy and that strategic planning is adaptive and responsive process. Paradoxically, in the early model of the university, it was unthinkable to link funding of education to economic gain since education is a public good and it contributes to shape identity and defines the path for renewal. 

Historically, the concept of a university emerged as an attempt to challenge the status quo and develop legitimacy for reason and science. Nowadays, due to changing dynamics of population, technology, and economy, there are new expectations from a university to fit in a market-led business model. Hence, the university is challenged to address the trade-offs between public versus private and cope with disruptive technologies and trap of productivity. These macro-changes propel higher education to adapt to changes from text to screen to web-based learning in the era of open source, virtual and augmented reality and Open University model. 

Moreover, technological innovation induced a landslide in mental models that in turn has transformed our perceptions of the innovative university in terms of product, process and paradigm of learning and teaching. Therefore, to ensure an intellectual leadership of a university, four conditions merits attention which includes a sustainable funding model, governance, capacity for renewal and innovation, and new metrics for excellence and quality. All of these four conditions help form a community of practice to mainstream and instill organizational innovation and creativity. 

Trust funds in elite universities like Harvard University amounts to about $30 billion help secure sustainable financing model and quality education. Such innovative financing which are inspired from Waqf funds is an example of cultural innovation. Good governance hinges on sound institutional setup, processes, and systems to ensure sound decision-making and renewal.  During the last three decades, I experienced many models from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Lancaster University, National University of Singapore and University of Malay where a university is viewed as a knowledge enterprise to fulfill a national mandate to guide society. In GCC, KAUST and MASDAR are good examples for harnessing global networks to transform higher education. 

In the USA, Arizona State University in the last decade presented an innovative model for university governance and leadership. In sum, the resilience of a university was founded on its ability to listen to market and users and to engage with all employees in the planning process. These attributes enabled the emergence of good ideas and helped organizations excel amidst disruption.