and the new model restricted to isomorphism.

The AUSJAL proposals for private higher education, together with the
local, national, and global actors in the drive for sustainable development
offer the opportunity to recreate Latin American universities. The challenge
is to nurture within universities the capacity for discernment and wisdom,
based on professionalism with a critical conscience.

A social contract on education is urgently required that will permit all
social forces to join in a pact to strengthen the educational continuum, and
democratize, internationalize, and localize knowledge. This entails linking
up private and public universities with their cultural roots, catering to the
gender and environmental needs of their own people, and creating an alli-
ance with international universities.

Obviously some may consider this a utopian undertaking. However,
as the late Octavio Paz succinctly put it, "utopia is rationality's dream."
Perhaps a university utopia is required during this change of epoch -- as
well as competent and visionary leadership with the creativity and values
to make what is necessary also possible. The pioneering and experimental
initiatives of AUSJAL and UCA-Managua show that university autonomy
is indispensable to creating the new university community. Recalling
Einstein again, "the world we have created today as a result of our think-
ing thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we
thought when we created them." The search for the missing link between
education and development is the beginning of the new way of thinking
about the university.

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