Universities: From Local Institutions to Global Systems? Implications for Students, Staff and Institutions

The main resource for a country’s endogenous growth is its human and cultural capital. Universities play a very important, but not the only, role in maintaining and building this resource. Universities are institutions situated amongst strong and changing forces. They are caught between government, market and academia. In many institutions, this has led to a strengthening of the executive leadership at the expense of the influence of collegial bodies, and external (to the institution) members have been introduced into the governing bodies. This development has resulted in diminished state control, and more flexible and autonomous systems, but also to expanded reporting and accounting, which often in reality limit freedom and are perceived as control. Will academic creativity thrive within this reality? How would research universities evolve? This article claims that today’s university development starts out from Wilhelm von Humboldt’s universe but will play out in that of his brother Alexander’s.