What if there were no universities?

Abstract

To a large extent, the pursuit of science takes place in universities. In this essay, I ask the following questions. Supposing there were no universities, and that all the knowledge mankind has ever collected and generated is somehow accessible, would we invent universities to make this knowledge available to address the problems humanity faces? What should those universities perform, and what role would science play in such universities? To look for answers to those questions, I consider the nature of the problems dealt with by science, the knowledge needed to address those problems, the gap between the two, the need for interdisciplinarity and the need to educate the leaders of the future, and finally, the boundaries of scientific knowledge.

Determinantes de la divulgación de información en las universidades Latinoamericanas para un buen gobierno corporativo

“…La búsqueda de la ciencia prioritariamente tiene lugar en las universidades (Vasbinder, 2017), esto implica generar las capacidades para investigar en estas instituciones. La necesidad de recursos para generar las capacidades de investigación obliga a las universidades, independientemente de su condición, a divulgar información a los diversos stakeholders (Arechavala-Vargas y Sanchez-Cervantes, 2017; Mtawa et al, 2016;Harsh et al, 2018;Kohoutek et al, 2017;Powell y Dusdal, 2017;Huenneke et al, 2017;Kotsemir y Shashnov, 2017;Brownson et al, 2017;Rhoads et al, 2017).…”

A new paradigm for the scientific enterprise: nurturing the ecosystem

“…It is becoming more evident that a new systems-based approach is needed to allow science to adapt more quickly to the complex socio-political and biophysical context of today (the outermost circle). There are, however, now new resources, tools, and infrastructure (courtesy of STEM advances), such as lab space, journal access, and high-performance computing, either publicly available, or available for rent, that allow science to thrive outside of traditional institutions (the orange, next outermost circle) 56 . In addition, bottom-up changes are already being driven by early career scientists themselves in many different ways 57 – 60 .…”

A new paradigm for science: nurturing the ecosystem

“…It is becoming more evident that a new systems-based approach is needed to allow science to adapt more quickly to the complex socio-political and biophysical context of today (the outermost circle). There are, however, now new resources, tools, and infrastructure (courtesy of STEM advances) such as lab space, journal access, and high performance computing, either publicly available, or available for rent, that allow science to thrive outside of traditional institutions (the orange, next outermost circle) (Vasbinder 2017). In addition, bottom-up changes are already being driven by early career scientists themselves in many different ways (Arbesman & Wilkins 2012;McDowell 2014;Nicholson 2015;Hansen et al 2018).…”