My Favorite University President - Part 2 - Why Universities Must Reinvent

Why Universities Must Reinvent Themselves—Now

What if universities don’t reinvent themselves—quickly and dramatically?

It’s a question every institution of higher learning must confront. The world is being reshaped by four converging forces: technology, climate change, demographic shifts, and geopolitical fragmentation. These aren’t just influencing universities—they’re threatening their very existence.

Historically, universities have been engines of regional and national prosperity. They have fueled innovation, cultivated talent, and anchored communities. But unless they evolve, they risk becoming obsolete.

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Technology: Reinventing the Curriculum

Artificial intelligence is rewriting the rules of education:

• What students need to learn

• How learning happens

• How research is conducted

• The role of professors

• What jobs exist after graduation

The traditional classroom—centered on faculty expertise—is fading. AI is automating tasks once reserved for highly trained professionals, including data analysis and even critical thinking. Disciplinary knowledge, once the cornerstone of post-graduate careers, is increasingly handled by machines.

And it’s not just AI. Biotech, bioengineering, and synthetic biology are quietly revolutionizing how we learn and apply knowledge. Suleyman describe how these technologies are unique in history extremely well:

• Multi-purpose, affecting everything from medicine to agriculture

• Rapidly evolving, becoming cheaper and faster every day

• Transgenerational, passing knowledge faster than human generations ever could

Universities must become hubs for cultivating adaptive, resilient thinkers—people who can thrive in a world shaped by intelligent machines and biological innovation. But they can’t do it in their current form.

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Climate: Building Practical Skills for a Changing World

Climate change is a practical challenge. It demands new systems for how we feed, move, build, care, and power our lives. These systems were designed decades ago, and the capacity to envision and build new ones has largely been lost.

Universities must prepare students to reimagine and reconstruct the infrastructure of human life. That means reinvesting in engineering, operations, and systems design—and teaching students to think in ecosystems, not silos.

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Demography: Rethinking Who the Student Is

The world is aging.  For Europe, North American, Australia, China and Japan, the traditional college-age population is shrinking. For most of the rest of the world the demand for education far outstrips the capacity of transitional universities.   But the real shift comes from the intersection of demographic change with technological disruption and climate instability.

We must rethink who our students are—and what they need. Lifelong learning, retraining, and intergenerational education will become just as essential as a four-year degree. Universities must serve learners at every stage of life.

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A Fractured World: Rebuilding Trust and Relevance

Global fragmentation is accelerating. International student enrollment—once a reliable source of revenue and intellectual diversity—is declining. Public trust in higher education is eroding. Many parents now see universities as overpriced, irrelevant, or even harmful to their children’s values.

Meanwhile, many nations face an urgent need to rebuild domestic capabilities across industries. Universities must become trusted partners in this effort, not isolated ivory towers.

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The Path Forward: Rethinking the University

The university of the future cannot be a place where:

• Learning is confined to classrooms

• Knowledge is narrowly disciplinary

• Faculty are gatekeepers of information

• AI is seen as a threat to academic integrity

Instead, it must be a community-integrated, interdisciplinary, lifelong learning ecosystem—one that prepares people to navigate complexity, rebuild systems, and lead with purpose. One that helps create a sense of agency in a continuously changing world, driven by profound forces of the like we have never seen.

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