Around the world, higher education faces pressure to respond better to the needs of society. More universities are rising to the occasion at the national level, and others are finding new ways to help neighborhoods and local communities solve important problems. Their success suggests it is time to question some long-held ideas.
As members of the Talloires Network, an international association of institutions committed to strengthening the civic role of higher education, we believe that a university is not an ivory tower. It is a social enterprise, with obligations to the society that supports it.
Scholarship need not be carried out in splendid isolation. Universities themselves will benefit if they work on crucial issues affecting their local communities, such as public health and education, challenges of urban or rural living, climate change and agricultural production, and the development of civil society.
Our efforts to deal with such issues in varying cultures and situations around the world have taught us lessons about how universities, by sharing their intellectual and material assets, can benefit society while also helping themselves improve teaching and other key activities.
1.) Working on local problems can enhance teaching and transform lives.
The largest city in Pakistan, Karachi has a 50-percent poverty rate. A third of its 16 million residents live in squatter settlements. Since 1985 the Urban Health Program at Aga Khan University has worked in several of these neighborhoods to improve basic health care, sanitation, education, and employment opportunities.
The university believed that its medical-education programs should directly deal with the most-pressing issues of its community. It therefore allocated 20 percent of curriculum time to providing local health services. It required medical students to conduct their practicum and research activities in poor neighborhoods, where they also offered counseling, health and nutrition education, health screening, and child and maternal aid. The university significantly improved what its students learned, made it more relevant, and assisted poor families in Karachi.
The university learned that it was essential to work with locals as partners. It started a program to train people to be community leaders. Thanks to the partnership, new water and sanitation lines were laid, and there has been a substantial reduction in maternal and infant mortality. The goal of the program is to sustain the public-health efforts long after the medical faculty and students have moved on to work in other settlements.
The university’s effort has transformed the way medicine is taught in South Asia and beyond. Students have developed new ideas to help fix endemic problems. The takeaway: Engagement with the community improves learning and offers opportunities for innovative teaching and ways to solve real-world issues.
2.) A university can act locally but have national influence.
It is not only in the developing world that universities can have a significant impact on community health. A few years ago, Tufts University researchers found that nearly half of the first- through third-grade students in Somerville, Mass., near the campus, were overweight or at high risk for obesity. In response, the university started Shape Up Somerville.
The development of public policy is a crucial function for civically engaged universities. Tufts realized that partnership with the city and its public schools would provide an important opportunity for faculty, students, and researchers to bring additional resources to bear in the effort to combat childhood obesity. They used strategies designed to increase options for physical activity throughout the day and to improve dietary choices. The rate of weight gain dropped among Somerville children in the targeted age group.
By directing scientific research, policy development, and volunteer service at a specific local issue, Shape Up Somerville can be a national model to reduce childhood obesity. In 2010, at the invitation of Michelle Obama, the mayor of Somerville spoke at the White House to outline why the program has been so successful.
3.) Universities need partners.
While local and national governments were an important partner for Shape Up Somerville, some of the most important allies for universities seeking to disseminate relevant recommendations for research and policy are businesses and nonprofit groups.
At the National University of Malaysia, partnerships with industry and foundations have helped the university to create endowed chairs in important research areas, including climate change and sustainable development.
One such effort is the National University of Malaysia’s collaboration with the Sime Darby Foundation, created by a major palm-oil industry player, to establish a chair for climate change. The purpose of this chair is to develop scientific knowledge of tropical climate systems to help figure out how nations and communities can mitigate future problems. The chair provides a much-needed platform to generate important knowledge and help develop a program that trains students to teach local communities about climate change.
The support for local protection-and-mitigation plans is a key motivating factor for both the university and the foundation.
Such partnerships facilitate a two-way flow of expertise and resources that benefits everyone involved, and enriches education, research, and service.
Our three universities and the nearly 200 others from across the world that belong to the Talloires Network share the belief that higher education must go beyond job preparation, the development of professional skills, or even personal growth. It must build citizen leaders who can apply knowledge directly to pressing problems and recognize areas of need. As our examples suggest, community-based education can put learning into context and increase the relevance of higher education. This is particularly true in the developing world, where public resources are limited and human needs are great.
Nations and international donor agencies often attempt to weigh the relative benefits of investments in primary, secondary, and higher education. Universities that focus on social needs can demonstrate innovations that are useful both locally and globally. There is no more powerful way to challenge the perception that higher education offers a limited return on investment, or serves only the elite or the limited number of students fortunate enough to be enrolled.
Institutions around the world are beginning to demonstrate that higher education can remain committed to the pursuit of knowledge while offering practical benefits to communities and societies. University research and teaching have already led to huge advances in health, agriculture, technology, and environmental management and restoration. Looking ahead, discussions about investments in higher education must include not only access and internationalization, but also aligning university resources with local, regional, and national needs.
Lawrence S. Bacow is president of Tufts University. Shamsh Kassim-Lakha is founding president of Aga Khan University and a former minister of education in Pakistan. Saran Kaur Gill is deputy vice chancellor for industry and community partnerships at the National University of Malaysia.
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