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6 |
Summary, with Some Warnings of Hazards and
Tensions |
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| In sum, the Commission's study and reflections
have not basically changed the conceptions of AKU's mission
that were laid down a decade and more ago. Our conclusions have
been mostly to shift emphases among missions already declared,
or to try to explicate what had been left vague. We believe
AKU must strive to be an autonomous institution, setting its
own course in the pursuit of distinction and quality. It will
remain a small institution and can only be of wide consequence
if it grasps the opportunities its unique position as a private,
international and Muslim institution offers it. In the educational
programmes it offers, in its research, and whatever else it
does it must seek the highest attainable standards of quality
and integrity. It must loyally serve the countries where it
works and the students who come to it. But it must also seek
wide influence, through emulation of its programmes, through
the shaping of public and private policies, and through the
diffusion of its research and other intellectual products. It
must accept the formidable challenges of having branches in
widely separated geographic locations and of attempting to serve
multiple purposes. |
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| That there will be tensions among the Inissions
AKU has elected to serve, and that these will bring hazards
to its future, are almost certainties. AKU, like other universities,
will be asked to do too many things and it will be tempted to
respond to programmes that are easy to finance at the expense
of those more important to its mission and its claims to distinction.
There will be the natural tendency for established parts of
the University to crowd to the trough and keep newcomers away
from what they seek and need. And what is readily understood
by large publics may deflect the University from its proper
responsibility to cultivate subjects that are "high and dry
to the common palate". The difficulties of maintaining the Muslim
character of a university while retaining the openness and freedom
that should be the hallmark of an academic institution engaged
in the quest for knowledge are suggested by the experience not
only of Muslim universities but of universities throughout the
world. |
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| Such risks are inevitable consequences of high
and complex ambition. We shall be making recommendations on
governance of AKU that may diminish these hazards. But we hope
that our reflections on its continuing missions will raise consciousness
of them and strengthen loyalties, not merely to parts but to
the whole vision of the future AKU. |
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