President Proenza presents UA model to international audience

As traditional paradigms for higher education and research face inevitable change throughout the world, universities are compelled to define new strategies for success. University of Akron President Luis M. Proenza presented strategic thinking being developed at UA and its key components – relevance, connectivity and productivity – at Beijing Forum 2009 at China’s Peking University. This international assembly co-sponsored by Peking University, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education and The Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies called together Nobel Laureates in economics and world-class scholars and experts to explore the relationship between world civilizations and social development. Topics included financial reconstruction and economic revitalization.

Proenza, one of only two American university presidents invited to make a presentation at the sixth annual Beijing Forum (the other was Cornell University President David J. Skorton), joined fellow higher education leaders on an international stage November 6-8 to address the Forum’s 2009 theme, “The Harmony of Civilizations and Prosperity for All – Looking Beyond the Crisis to a Harmonious Future.” This year’s event attracted more than 300 leading academics from more than 40 countries and regions. The 2009 theme was of particular significance, organizers said, given that many delegates believe the current financial crisis is far from over. Proenza gave his presentation on one of five sub-themes of the conference, “Higher Education under the Financial Crisis: Strategies and Development.”

This was Proenza’s second appearance in as many years in China to address global issues affecting higher education. In September 2008, Proenza and a small delegation of UA administrators discussed operational and programmatic details of UA’s Confucius Institute with representatives of the Office of Chinese Language and Council International and Henan University.

At this year’s Forum, Proenza noted that competition among universities, demographic shifts, resource constraints, scrutinized productivity and accountability and a global economic downturn challenge higher education institutions to define their relevancy through an integrated application of disciplinary knowledge for the public good. Proenza emphasized that universities – as economic anchors of their regions and hubs of educational knowledge – must find ways to facilitate their relevant engagement and application.

That relevance, Proenza noted, is extended by connectivity, by what universities do through partnerships, alliances and collaborations with other academic institutions, government, business and industry to enhance innovation.

Innovation ecosystem

“The simple reality is that innovation happens within what many are calling an innovation ecosystem, the system of loosely interconnected elements that has enabled our society to make new discoveries, capture their value in the marketplace, enhance productivity and increase our standard living,” Proenza explained.

The third prong of Proenza’s strategy is productivity, which he says needs to be redefined for universities to remain relevant.  In fact, Proenza challenged his audience to redefine higher education as a whole.

“Educational attainment is important because today’s college is tomorrow’s high school. Today’s tertiary education, is tomorrow’s secondary education,” he said. “What I mean is college is to the 21st century what high school was to the 20th century, or what a primary education was to the 19th century; college is now just the starting point; it gets you to the door, but it alone will not get you to the show.”

Proenza stressed the importance of advanced placement and early college programs as means for getting high school students into college more efficiently and cost-effectively. Yet this process might challenge definitions of academic success that weigh on selectivity and expense, on how many students are excluded and how much money is spent per student.

“If we are going to begin even talking about productivity, new performance- and productivity-based metrics must be developed that reflect outcomes in enabling student success and achievements in solving real-world problems,” Proenza said.

Assessing research performance

Finally, Proenza emphasized the importance of universities being assessed by their research performance, not by input measures such as funding. He pointed out that some universities have larger licensing revenues than those with comparable research budgets and all surveys that measure licensing revenues compared to research income show no correlation. Because established frameworks that explore all factors fail to exist, Proenza advised his fellow higher education leaders to characterize research competitiveness and productivity separately.

“Today, higher education is on the threshold of a revolution of its own, facing major and complex changes that must be directed to optimal outcomes if universities are to continue as major players in the rapidly evolving global economy,” Proenza said. “In all candor, this will not be something that is easy to do. But if necessity is the mother of invention, then let us begin.”

Media Contacts: Laura Massie, 330-972-6476, massie1@uakron.edu, or Denise Henry, 330-972-6477 or henryd@uakron.edu.