On 27 November 2024, UNU will host “The Future of the University: A New Era of Open Science”, a conversation with Ahmed Bawa, Professor at the University of Johannesburg, and Geoffrey Boulton, Regius Professor of Geology Emeritus and former Vice Principal of the University of Edinburgh. This event will start at 18:30 in the 2F Reception Hall at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo.
As human societies have grown and diversified, the need for institutions like universities, adaptable to a wide range of social needs, arose. These inherently flexible organizations have become constrained in their functions because of an increasing tendency by governments to fund them for exclusively delivering on their own priorities. The dominant priority required for academics has emerged as research, partly because of a view that it is essential to economic progress and partly from a focus on university rankings and reputation. These priorities run counter to the challenges that face modern society — a need for deeper and more diverse modes of learning that can be provided by its universities.
Ahmed Bawa and Geoffrey Boulton will join UNU Rector Tshilidzi Marwala for a discussion on how to reimagine the roles of universities in society. How can universities balance the growing emphasis on research with the need to foster diverse and inclusive modes of learning? What steps can governments and universities take to ensure that higher education addresses broader societal challenges rather than narrowly defined priorities? In what ways might universities need to transform to remain relevant in a rapidly evolving and increasingly diverse global society?
The UNU Conversation Series aims to foster audience participation; you are encouraged to engage with the speakers during the conversation and at the reception that will follow, where all event attendees are invited to enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks while exchanging ideas and making new contacts.
Please note that this event will be in English. Advance registration (by 26 November at 15:00) is required. Please click on the REGISTER button above to access the online registration page.
Please be prepared to present identification at check-in.
About the Speakers
Ahmed Bawa
Ahmed Bawa is a theoretical physicist. He is currently a professor at the Johannesburg Business School, University of Johannesburg. Between 2016 and 2022 he held the position of Chief Executive Officer at Universities South Africa (USAf), the umbrella body of South Africa’s 26 public universities. Until the end of April 2016, he was Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Durban University of Technology (DUT) as the university began its journey from being a technical college to a fully constituted university.
Until August 2010 he was a faculty member at Hunter College in the City University of New York where he was a member of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He was also a member of the doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center, also of the City University of New York. He was appointed Associate Provost for Curriculum Development at Hunter College. For about nine years, he previously held the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Natal and then at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Before that he was an academic at what was then called the University of Durban Westville.
Ahmed Bawa holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Durham, UK. He has published in the areas of high energy physics, nuclear physics, higher education studies, science education and to some extent in the area of science and society. He has an MSc in Nuclear Physics from the University of Durban-Westville.
Geoffrey Boulton
Geoffrey Boulton OBE, FRS, FRSE is Regius Professor of Geology Emeritus and former Vice Principal of the University of Edinburgh. He has been a member of a standing Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution of the UK Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology and chaired the Royal Society’s Science Policy Centre. He chairs the Academic Advisory Council of Heidelberg University, is a member of the Strategic Council of the University of Geneva and a member of the Governing Board of the International Science Council. He has written on policies for science and the universities and has been particularly honoured for his work in glaciology.
