Philip Spies

This chapter reviews a few of the implications of social change for universities as
educational institutions in the next century. The university, as we know it today,
is a product of a number of "genotypical" and "phenotypical" factors. The geno-
typical factors provided a measure of constancy of practice over the ages. They
were shaped by the classical roots and ageless traditions of universities and other
centers of advanced learning in society. The phenotypical factors cover the his-
torical conditions that shaped human competencies and society's need for educa-
tional services over the ages.

The current transformation toward a postindustrial world order therefore holds
important implications for the development and governance of universities. This
challenge is systemic in nature, which contrasts sharply with the reductionism of
latter day advanced education. Moreover, it seems that the postindustrial world
will not just be an adaptation of the industrial world, but something fundamentally
different in terms of its mode of wealth creation and in terms of its source of social
power. This could affect every facet of the university as an advanced educational
institution, that is, its function, structure, processes, and form of governance.

The earliest roots of the university as an educational institution are probably
2,400 years ago in the paideia of the classical Greek Sophists, with the Academy
of Plato and the Lyceum of Aristotle being the earliest institutional examples of
specialized advanced education in philosophy. The Sophists believed that educa-
tion should develop a person's character for effective participation in polis life.

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