Keynote from the Higher Education Academy Annual Conference, 22-23 June 2010.
Universities’ missions are often expressed in terms of their aspirations regarding learning and teaching, research and enterprise as well as variations on the theme of community engagement. More often than not there is also reference to the student experience, whether from an academic or extracurricular viewpoint. From a different perspective, however, one can also argue that the essence of a university’s mission should actually be ‘shaping the future’ – pro-actively contributing towards creating a better future, rather than merely reacting to a world that others have made. As such, universities are trustees of the future and should focus on affecting broader outcomes rather than just attaining interim outputs. Adopting ‘shaping the future’ as a core element of mission compels one to take a position on the notion of change and its nuances in terms of progress and continuous improvement, in contrast to the old adage of ‘if it’s not broken don’t tamper with it’. Embracing innovation becomes the key to creating new wealth and value rather than just new knowledge. Innovation has, however, been described as a ‘wave of creative destruction’, and it is as much about letting go of the old as it is about bringing about the new. Challenging assumptions and conventional wisdom, considering options and alternatives, asking not what something will cost but rather what it will cost if it is not done and believing in going beyond become standard practice in the quest to ‘shape the future’ as we think about future staff, future students, future partners and policy, and future learning.