Why there is a need for brave experiments in higher education

These are tough times for Aotearoa’s universities. Money is short. Lecture halls are empty. Professors are rebelling against online teaching. Too many students are responding to the academic articles we assign them by asking ChatGPT to tell them what the articles say and to write their replies. One way to be positive about this is to understand that change to institutions doesn’t happen without crises. It’s time for New Zealanders to think boldly – and experimentally – about what the university of 2044 could be. New Zealanders are sometimes praised for our willingness to experiment in economics. We should be just as willing with novel approaches in higher education. Our small size places us at a disadvantage when we try to compete with richer players. But it’s an advantage when it comes to experimenting. In her argument for a new interdisciplinary university, US educationalist Cathy Davidson describes the German Humboldtian model of the teaching research university dominant in higher education since the late 1800s. This model emerged in Prussia, displacing earlier approaches that tended to emphasise rote learning of. The Humboldtian model created the anchor disciplines of science, law, philosophy, history, theology, and medicine.

We should be grateful for the century of growth sustained by this model. But we should also acknowledge that today’s challenges differ from those of 50 years ago. If we had a crystal ball, we could just create the university of 2044 now. Since we don’t, we must experiment.

We should learn the right lesson about innovation from success in Big Tech. It’s not necessary to admire their billions to respect their attitude toward innovation.

We adored Steve Jobs for Apple’s 1997 Think Different campaign: “Here’s to the crazy ones… because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” We listened attentively when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos told us: “I believe the dreamers come first... They invent these ideas, and they get catalogued as impossible.”

The experimental approach in tech embraces failure as an essential part of innovating in an uncertain world. The Amazon Fire Phone looked like a potential iPhone-beater when first released in 2014. It emphatically was not. But Bezos did not sack those who proposed this costly flop. Instead, once its failure was apparent, he expeditiously canned it and asked those who proposed it to come up with new ideas.

The Humboldtian University did not emerge fully formed from the practices of 17th century scholar monks memorising sacred texts. It too required brave experimentation.

What new disciplines could emerge from the intersection of AI and healthcare, AI and climate change, AI and history? An experimental approach suggests we try new courses and accept that some will be the higher education equivalents of the Amazon Fire Phone. The institution brave enough to invent the courses for 2044 won’t be rewarded with the billions that Amazon claims for its successful experiments. It should at least get naming rights on the new discipline.

It might also attract students inspired by the idea of co-inventing the courses that their own kids will study.

An Aotearoa that committed to an experimental approach should carefully consider the effects of the many committees both within universities and nationally whose purpose is to uphold academic standards.

Which of these play the role of a hypothetical committee in Apple Inc that seeks to stop the 2007 release of the iPhone because it may not conform to all the intricate norms about best practice in portable telecommunications in 2006?

Aotearoa needs committees that exercise oversight over universities. But we need ones that embrace innovation.

One important role in supporting innovation would be that of competition watchdog. A small university that bravely innovates risks the misfortune of small innovators in tech. As soon as Meta/ Facebook sees that your idea works, it can threaten to promptly do what you are doing at scale. One role for a competition watchdog in New Zealand higher education would be to ensure that smaller institutions that innovate are rewarded for their successes, rather than finding that a much bigger institution an hour-and-ahalf up the road immediately replicates its discoveries but at a greater scale.

A 19th century innovation from the German Kingdom of Prussia defined university teaching and research globally for over a century. If Aotearoa’s experiments succeed might the students of 22nd century Berlin be using some of our concepts as they seek to understand their world?

We can’t predict the outcome of such an experiment until we’ve tried it. But is it really more absurd than the idea of the Humboldtian university would have seemed to a 17th century scholar monk busy memorising his sacred texts?

Nick Agar is a professor of ethics at the University of Waikato.