Connecting Universities in a Divided World: International Association of Universities’ Mission

Alex Usher: Hi there. I'm Alex Usher, and this is the World of Higher Education podcast. There are a lot of transnational associations of universities out there. Some of them are meant to advance specific political goals, like the European Universities Association. Others are meant to simply support their members without engaging in any actual lobbying or political work, like the African Association of Universities, whose Ex President Ernest Aiyiti was a guest on the show last year.
But the oldest of all of these associations is the International Association of Universities, based in Paris, and was created by UNESCO in 1950. I had the pleasure of attending their annual meeting in Tokyo last November. It's a unique opportunity to see all of global higher education, in all of its glorious diversity, reflected in a single room.
While I was there, I asked their Secretary General, Hilligje Van t Land, to join us on the show. Graciously, she agreed, and that led to today's podcast. My chat with  Hilligje revolved mainly around two issues. First, the state of global higher education. Spoiler, it's been better. As well as the challenges of maintaining an association across a membership which covers over a hundred countries.
How do you keep an organization relevant across institutions with such different capacity levels? Dealing with such different problems in different external environments. When it gets to the global level, can universities even be called a single community? Hilligje, who I think has one of the most interesting perches in world higher education from which to answer these questions, is good company on the jaunt through the really big questions in this discussion.
And so without further ado, let's turn it over to Hilligje.
Hilligje I'm not sure all our viewers or listeners or readers will know the history of the International Association of Universities. You know, I know it was founded in 1950, but how has it evolved since then? What is, what does your membership look like geographically?
Hilligje Van t Land: Yes, well, my name is indeed Hilligje Van t Land. I'm the Secretary General of this very nice organization, the International Association of Universities. And as you say, it was founded in 1950 under the auspices of UNESCO, and its secretariat is based in Paris. Why do I say that? Because that's always one of the questions that I receive. Where are you based?
But at the same time, we represent a global higher education community and universities from 130 countries from the five continents. How has it evolved over time? In the beginning, it was an association that was led by universities more from the global north trying from there and to rebuild the world on a set of values that would help create peace among people through higher education. And today, this is still the backdrop to much of the work that we do. So bring the many voices from around the world together to work together on a collaborative um, kind of collective vision of what a university could stand for in order to assist societies in developing for something better.
So what does it look like? 600 members really engaged in terms of financial contribution also to the association, and it's a very diverse group of universities that we bring together from the five continents, and that's the aim as well. Not one people, but many people.
Alex Usher: Right. So You know we think of, we often think of associations of universities in terms of, you know, rectors conferences and their job is to lobby people, and so whether it's a national group or whether it's the European universities association, something like that.
IAU obviously doesn't have that kind of function. So is it more, a is it more universities speaking to each other? What's its role in, in the global ecosystem? Who's it, speaking to? What's the audience, not just the membership.
Hilligje Van t Land: No, that's a very uh, very. sensitive, no, sensible, or good question. Sorry for my English hampering sometimes, but we're indeed a representative and very global association of universities without a resonance at the local level or at the regional level. EUA would respond to the European Commission, the Arab Association of Universities to many Arab world ministries. The American universities are engaged in associations that really make sense also in terms of policy development at national level, AAU African Union. We bring these voices together to also collectively think about how can university better collab universities, with an s, collaborate better around the world to really contribute to transforming the world in which we live from where we sit. And we advocate to the UN, and to UNESCO and influence policy decision making bodies that are associated and affiliated with UNESCO. So we will have a say in global agenda setting. Now we are coming almost to the end of the UN Agenda 2030. The new agenda will have to be drafted because we're not there at all with achieving the goals. Yet the goals have served a very strong purpose. And that is to at least bring the universities together around essential topics, but a new agenda will emerge and the universities from around the world will help develop the new agenda to come.
Alex Usher: So I mean, I guess one thing that struck me because I attended your meeting in Tokyo in November, and I mean, it was an amazing meeting. It was an amazing gathering. But what struck me above all is how difficult it must be to create an institutional agenda that can actually speak to universities from different parts of the world because, you know, how can I put it? You know, not these institutions from Australia or Indonesia or Somalia, I think you had one from Somaliland you know, delegate from Somaliland there. They're dealing with very different issues domestically. So how do you find themes that actually make national institutions, which are deeply embedded in national contexts, how do you make a common agenda that works for everybody?
Hilligje Van t Land: It's aa challenge and a real opportunity at the same time, Alex, because if you're so embedded in your national dynamics, how can you actually make the case for what you do? If you only navel gaze or uh, work in echo chambers, you need to look outside in order to better understand how you can inform your own policies. You can bring in many voices from the global higher education communities in conversations at the institutional level, at the national level and at the regional level. And the agenda that we co craft with the board, which is then put to the IAU membership once every four years, is really being discussed at the global level. Are these the topics that we should work on? Yes or no? And then the strategy is developed. And universities buy into it by really seizing the opportunities to, to engage on responsible internationalization or meaningful internation—, transformed internationalization. One topic on fair and, inclusive leadership dynamics or on higher education's role in sustainable development. And nowadays, since COVID, even more so in how to have a global conversation about the digital transformation of higher education. And in particular there what is the conversation about open science or what is the conversation about AI? How does it inform higher education?
And even though you're from Somaliland, or you come from Ghana, or you come from Colombia, or from Reykjavik, or Paris, all these universities have similar questions they ask themselves as rectors, and as policymakers in their own setting. And so by having these opportunities to have global rectors meetings and leadership meetings, it's it really resonates with them and allows to develop new perspectives.
Alex Usher: I think you've mentioned the three big areas that you works in, and I'm thinking sustainability, internationalism, you have those big surveys that go out and studies that go out every couple of years, and digital transformation. How do you really engage institutions in that? What are they doing in each of those three areas and with you, and what are they getting out of it?
Hilligje Van t Land: Um fair and inclusive internationalization, one of the topics that's also resonating very strongly even with the name of the International Association of Universities, translates in at least 10 different ways for universities to engage. So yesterday we, for instance, hosted and offered a webinar on what is responsible internationalization nowadays. Are we all to read in responsible internationalization the need to close borders and fence off all these countries that are likely to steal all our good work? Or is responsible internationalization on the contrary a real opportunity to connect universities from around the world around key topics, develop the kind of international collaboration in research that is so much needed to address global goals, climate change or crisis in its many forms and shapes.
So these conversations is one opportunity. We have a service that we offer called HEIAS Higher Education Internationalization Strategies Advisory Service. We also have a network of all the internationalization associations, NAFSA in the U.S., or um the EAIE in Europe and the um, African Association for International. So we bring these voices together and co craft statements that universities then can pick up. We inform each other about the key topics that we should address. So that's internationalization. SD, we have created a global cluster on higher education and research for sustainable development where we've offered universities from around the world to champion any of the SDGs and then still connect the different projects among themselves. Not to silo them out, work together and co create answers to water issues, gender issues cities that are not sustainable, and that results in research projects and initiatives, name it.
Alex Usher: We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.
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Alex Usher: And we're back. Hilligje, the, you know, your, you did hold that meeting, I mentioned it earlier, in Tokyo in November. What do you think were some of the main takeaways from that event? What did you learn in that event about how universities are you know, coping with the 2020s?
Hilligje Van t Land: 2020s? Coping with everything that comes to them, I would say. One of the major takeaways is one that you probably will not expect. It's the topic itself uh, university values for the futures in a changing world. We had many conversations around the table also with the conference program committee. We should talk about AI. We should talk about sustainable. We have to talk about financial sustainability of universities because that's what universities are struggling with. And I said, you have many organizations that are dealing with these topics. Specifically, let's talk about values. Where are the values today? What are the values we need to build and develop really valuable higher education for the future? And we've had, as you could also see when you attended the conference, a very large group of leaders of universities coming, more than in previous ones, where we really brought together the leadership of universities from around the world to discuss values that they stand for, from many different perspectives.
So what it told me is that, yes, we have this unique opportunity to rally around topics that other organizations don't talk about. And these conversations are essential. We've received numerous feedback messages and letters even saying that these conversations were really eye opening for the universities themselves and allowed to create new collaborative dynamics, either on inviting each other to each other's campuses looking at things from a different lens with a different lens through a different perspective. So what the takeaway is that these conversations are essential if we want to move into the future differently. So we can always address some of the and we will continue to address some of the key topics that are on the agenda on a day to day basis of universities and university leaders, but they also are craving for more space for these other kinds of conversations that are so much needed and where there is too little space for.
Alex Usher: Well, I mean, it seemed to me at the meeting that there was one session in particular, which I think Fanta Aw was leading from NASFAM in the United States and it was that a lot of the, North American, Australian, the OECD members, let's put it that way were coming in very worried about university values, thinking that they were under threat.
And I think this was a week or two after, the election in the United States, so people were thinking about, you know, issues like that, or Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, and what those kinds of political movements mean for universities. And I was struck by the pushback from, not pushback, but sort of gentle chiding, I would say, from some of the universities in other parts of the world, in Asia and in Africa, saying, yeah, we live with this all the time.
You know, how do you, from your perspective from the IAU, I mean, that's just another example of people are, you know, they're coming from very different places. How do you bridge those experiences within IAU? How do you, you know, and how do you make sure both are both sides are heard?
Hilligje Van t Land: Well, they were on that panel. And people really walked away from the room, also discussing it much further. It's not because in one part, in one institution or one country in particular, and I think there's no divide between developed or developing and even these, this terminology is very complicated because many of these countries that we deem developing aren't developed much further than we, we are at times. So that terminology I would like to discard and not use here further. But the fact that they talk about these topics is absolutely essential because it's not because your universities is submitted to these pressures from policy makers from governments and the threat to academic freedom, institutional autonomy, maybe a reality to some and coming anew to others. But it's very important that these, these questions are debated. If the future of higher education is one without institutional autonomy and academic freedom, where will we go? What kind of an education are we expecting for the future, if it is led top down from policy makers? If they start changing rectors as they see fit, if they forbid certain issues to be discussed on campus, institutional sections or departments have to be closed, which is happening that needs to be debated, and it needs to then, from there, be brought to the UN. It needs to be brought to the policymakers at UNESCO uh, gatherings. And it needs to be debated and put on the table uh, very strongly, because then the future is even bleaker than what it looks like today in many places in the, around the world.
Alex Usher: couple weeks ago, we had uh, an American author, Ben Wildavsky, on the show. And, of course, he wrote the book, The Great Brain Race, 15 years ago. And we had him on to talk about that book because it was such an optimistic view of higher education and how globalization would, you know, would be bringing everybody closer together. And you know, I look around the world today and I wonder about the future of globalization. I wonder about the future of internationalization. And you're so closely tied to a version of internationalization, maybe not the one that Ben was promoting. But you know, what do you see as IAU's role if globalization really is rolled back over the next four or five years?
Hilligje Van t Land: Globalization is one thing which has many facets and is often also questioned because it comes with many challenges as well. And it comes increasingly with fear, unfortunately. What we foster is cooperation at the global level. So cooperation that comes from, of course, an institutional dimension, then a national, then a regional and then a global one. So that cooperation is something that is never given and always needs to be nurtured very carefully, strategically and strongly.
We had on the webinar yesterday and and that webinar series on the futures of higher education, where we now have 75 issues that have been recorded and made available and can be found on our website. These, the webinar yesterday also had Ayesha Maikundi with us, who's the new Vice Chancellor for the University of Abuja, and she was questioned about responsible internationalization. What does that mean? And globalization, what does it mean? And there is a very interesting development from her end, for instance, where she says, well, we feed the world with the best, and the brightest and they never come back to us once they go international. They come back at times as expats and they will feed into our high education, but occasionally, et cetera. And she says there is still this need to look at brain drain. So the brain gain is definitely one brain circulation, if we consider that the brain can be taken out of the body and circulate by itself, but it cannot. But this connection of people is absolutely essential. Many models have been used over time. So we have to look again, how to facilitate these dynamics in order to make sure also that many of these systems, maybe not the Nigerian one, the easiest one to engage with and traveling to Nigeria comes with many of the challenges that many of us know, but there are many parts in the world where we can go and we don't estimate these places as worthy to go to.
So this collaboration, the global circulation, the global dynamics in higher education needs to be worked at and on strategically on and on again.
Alex Usher: So apart from these issues around, say, globalization and, I don't know, maybe state intrusion into university decision making, from your vantage point, like, what are the other big trends shaping higher education to, across the globe today?
And are we seeing a convergence of concerns at the university level? Or, you know, in a sense, are we becoming more similar, more isomorphic as universities, or do you, are you seeing more and more diversification of institutions again, at a kind of a global level?
Hilligje Van t Land: Universitiess are institutions with many faces. There are harmonization processes really far advanced in certain parts of the world. And you know about the European high education area dynamics, the Bologna process, the Bologna dynamics and the ministerial meetings that come with it in order to harmonize.
It's the aim is not to bring everybody together in a sense that everybody would, or every institution would be the same. The attempt in Europe is really to create a Europe with this diversity at the heart and offer an opportunity for them to dialogue better. This dynamic is something that you would also see little by little grow in Asia.
But look at the U. S. It's one country, so called, so many states, so many systems, and so many kinds of universities in the systems as well. So I'm, convinced that there is a need for better understanding of the systems. That's why right at the beginning in 1950, we started developing the World High Education Database, which at the time had 50 universities. Today, 21, 000 that we map and follow and document on a day to day basis and where we mapped all the systems of higher education from around the world in order to create better, better understanding, better appreciation and in the end also to feed into the global convention on the recognition of higher education qualifications that UNESCO is championing in order for these systems to harmonize yes, in the system so that people can actually navigate different systems at that time in order to become global citizens. If you have systems that are totally different and don't have the same calendars and don't have the same study periods, it makes it difficult. So there is a harmonization, but there is no one brush to make them all similar. They will remain different. And that's the beauty of it.
Alex Usher: So maintaining harmonization, while maintaining diversity, I suppose that's that could be one global you know, tendency over the next 15, 20 years.
How do you think the IAU specifically, so your organization, how's it going to change over the next 10 or 15 years as, you know, as those areas you talked about sustainability, internationalization and digital transformation, continue at pace? Do you stick with those three areas? Will new areas emerge or and will new ways of institutions collaborating across the globe emerge as well.
Hilligje Van t Land: I'm convinced that this will remain a movable feast, to quote somebody else, because universities never stay the same. They never stay interested in the same either. And so we have international conferences on an annual basis, but we have general conferences every four years where we elect a new board, and we bring together the higher education community to define a new strategic plan. So our four priorities, because we have to include also leadership as a very strong priority area of work for the IAU, they may change over time, they've changed over time, they've, the core and heart of it remains a bit, but we know there is massification of higher education that we have to look at. We know there's commodification of higher education, so we have to really look at that much more. We know also there is a very strong push for skills agendas that we try to push back a little by always advocating for the importance of the humanities. There is a strong tension between collaboration versus competition, that's still not addressed in a proper way. As the national versus the global, the digital, yes. And so what does that mean in terms of membership? We only have 600 who pay into the vision mission of the IAU, yet we have many more adhering to it. And I believe that as every year we see the landscape of those member of the members of the IAU transform. In 10 years time, our, where do I see it? Well, there is a wishful thinking. I would like 21, 000 universities to be a member so that we can have a truly global dialogue on shaping the future of society actually. Not only of the sector, we're not navel gazing, we're looking at what universities bring to society.
Alex Usher: Hilligje, thanks so much for joining us today.
Hilligje Van t Land: You're welcome.
Alex Usher: And it remains for me to thank our excellent producers, Tiffany McLennan and Sam Pufek, and you, our viewers, readers, and listeners for joining us. If you have any questions about today's episode or any comments, please don't hesitate to get in touch at podcast at higher ed strategy. com. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Never miss an episode of the world of higher education.
Join us next week when our guests will be Dendev Badarch. He's a professor at the Mongolian university of science and technology with us to talk about the prospects for higher education in his country.
Bye for now.