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4 |
The International Character and Dispersion of the University |
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In describing "The Aga Khan University at Age Ten" in Section
V above we included a paragraph addressing its Pakistani and
international characters which we repeat here for convenient
recall : |
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"Being set down in a major city in Pakistan with a Pakistani
charter and a board that must have at least three Pakistanis
among its thirteen members, AKU has been in major respects a
Pakistani institution. In itsfirst ten years its student
body has been overwhelmingly Pakistani, its faculty largely
so, and, as we have regularly heard, it has been strongly concerned
to serve the needs of Pakistan. At the same time, AKU has not
forgotten its aspiration to be an international university.
Its financial support, board and academic leadership have been
strongly international; important relationships with universities
in other parts of the world have been established; and aspirations
to make the university more international, through the relevance
of its accomplishments and the founding Of new branches, are
warmly supported by the present staff. And using English as
its language of instruction, it is immersed in what has increasingly
become the international language of the sciences. In its history
thus far, AKU has been preoccupied with building its first parts
in a particular country, but its commitment to being an international
university, serving the Muslim and developing worlds, is firmly
maintained." |
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The ambition to be an international university is a demanding
ambition, but it is a natural ambition of universities if
they are to deal with the broad corpus of modern knowledge in
a globalised world. No university that aims to be great or distinguished
can now confine its interests and purposes to a single country
or even to a region of the world. Efforts to avoid parochialism
in curricula, staff and student bodies have therefore received
great attention and resources in the leading universities, particularly
in the second half of this century. Presidents of universities
like Harvard or Princeton sought in the early years of this
century to make their institutions genuinely national in their
reach and significance; their recent successors have been busy
winning an international character for them. Much of what makes
a university international in character goes on in its own country
on its own campus. But the establishment of programmes or branches
outside the country is also normal, as in the study-abroad programmes
or special research institutions attached to American universities.
The rationale for setting up such outliers in foreign parts
must give justification for the costs and administrative difficulties
involved; it must typically rest on grounds that the university
cannot fulfil its educational and research missions from its
home base; and it must also argue that linkages or networks
with other institutions abroad will not suffice. |
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To say that AKU is to be an international university does
not say how far it must spread physically, in how many countries
it should have a presence or of what sort. It does not say that
it should not have special interests in Pakistan or perhaps
in another country where it may set itself down, any more than
Oxford ceases to be an international university by taking a
special interest in things British or Michigan by an interest
in the American Midwest. It is the range of intellectual vision
in research and instruction, and the composition of staff and
student body that are critical. There are of course, countries
and places within them that are more cosmopolitan than others,
and it may be a fair generalisation that it has been harder
for universities in developing countries to pursue international
interests than for their counterparts in the richer, industrial
countries. The presumption which was put into the AKU's Charter
that it would engage in activities n both within and beyond
Pakistan appears to us as prudent recognition that achieving
an international character and outlook for AKU, as a university
beginning in a developing country, might require a broader geographic
spread than would be the case for a university beginning in
Europe or North America. |
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The record of political instability and authoritarian government
that the Third World has unfortunately shown gives reason for
concern about concentrating all of AKU in a single location
anywhere in the Third World. We have been happy that AKU has
been able thus far to develop successfully in Karachi. This
experience in Pakistan has given encouragement that an institution
respected for its quality and valued for the services it provides
to the country can gain the favour and support of successive
governments, as AKU has with three governments after its founding
under General Zia's. But merit and devoted service are not infallible
protections; they will not always ensure a university against
disruption and intrusion. And universities that are true to
their academic responsibilities must sometimes do and say things
that are poorly understood by or are unwelcome to governments
that have power over them. When the option is available, as
it is for AKU, the prudential course must be not to risk all
its commitments in a single location. |
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Special concerns with South Asia and East Africa have followed
from those of AKU's founder and the Ismaili community; and being
part of the Muslim world has extended these areas of concern
from South East Asia and across the Middle East and Africa.
The dispersion of the Muslim population of the world to Europe
and America and the opening of Central Asia to the international
community have further extended the areas of concern to AKU.
Clear ideas on locations and geographic spread for AKU must
depend on the fields that it will develop, but we are able at
this stage of the discussion to conclude that : |
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i) |
An AKU that has all its principal components in Pakistan
will not be a sufficiently international university. We
do not mean to diminish the efforts that have been made and
that will continue to be made to give international dimensions
and perspectives to the parts of the University now or in future
situated in Pakistan. We envisage that AKU may develop units
in other countries which would be related to faculties and institutes
in the Pakistan centre (as, e.g., a Professional Development
Centre in East Africa related to IED or a Nursing Institute
there, related to the School of Nursing) and that these will
serve to strengthen the international interests at AKU in Pakistan.
The components of AKU that are in Pakistan ought to have Pakistani
interests; but not all of AKU can give primacy to Pakistan if
it is to be an international university. Hence the need for
new fields to be developed elsewhere. |
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ii) |
A bipolar AKU in which the Pakistan AKU would be one component
and the other would consist of one or more institutes or units
in a single location would probably also be too limited.
Earlier views that subjects particularly concerned with Islam
and Muslim societies had better be developed in Europe has found
confirmation in this Commission's persuasion, set forth in Section
VII, that such subjects need to be developed in Europe in relationships
with AKTC and IIS and in insulation from pressures that have
come with the rise of radical activist movements in Islam. If
this were to be done as the single non-Pakistani site for AKU,
there would be no direct engagement with Africa and Central
Asia, areas which present ample difficulties, but which are
of special interest for AKU. |
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iii) |
We must therefore assume that the AKU of the future will
have a presence in at least three regions of the world. The
meaning of a "presence" is of course vague, and large disparities
in size and breadth may result. But our judgements on such possibilities
must follow on our later consideration of the fields that lie
in AKU's future. |
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Universities that have significant branches in different countries
are quite rare. We have reviewed the history of such examples
as the University of the West Indies, the now-defunct University
of East Africa, and of course the United Nations University.
They do not make the future we are proposing for AKU look easy,
but we do not see that it can fulfil its mission without accepting
the challenges that being international impose on it. |
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