Working Group 3: Academic Institutions of the Future

Working Group THREE

Academic Institutions of the Future

Overview
Why This Matters
Key Areas of Focus
How the Group Works
Members

Overview

This Working Group explores how academic institutions and the broader academic ecosystem can become future-ready, fit for purpose, and champions of academic responsibility. The group is developing a blueprint for the academic institution of the future, reimagining its role within the broader academic ecosystem. This ecosystem includes all organizations that use and benefit from academic outputs: universities, funders, publishers, regulatory bodies, governments, communities, NGOs, companies, and service providers. By clarifying how these actors interact, the group aims to catalyze societal impact.

Why This Matters

Academic institutions operate within a rapidly changing knowledge and learning environment and are expected to respond to complex societal and global challenges. Their responsibilities extend beyond producing knowledge: they also include education and training, service to society, safeguarding ethics and integrity, engaging communities, and creating conditions in which knowledge can be critically assessed and responsibly used.

This group examines how academic institutions and the wider academic ecosystem can evolve to meet these responsibilities while remaining resilient to current and future challenges.

Key Areas of Focus

The group is addressing three central questions:

How can academic institutions and the wider academic ecosystem position themselves as stewards of knowledge and academic responsibility in service of planetary and human health?
The group will explore the role that academic institutions and the academic ecosystem should play to address societal needs in the face of these challenges.
What major structural, procedural, and cultural transformations are needed in the academic ecosystem of the future?
The group will examine the changes required to meet societal needs, while addressing current and future challenges. It will also identify institutional components and strategies that have enabled resilience and successful adaptation to previous challenges.
How can academic institutions and other organizations within the academic ecosystem achieve these transformations?
The group aims to identify specific actions that organizations can take to achieve these transitions.

How the Group Works

It will build on findings from the Commission’s other working groups, particularly their analysis of major shifts in global knowledge and learning systems.

The group's work proceeds in three stages, reflected in its central questions: first examining the roles academic institutions and the broader academic ecosystem should play in responding to societal needs, then identifying the transformations needed, and finally translating these into concrete actionable recommendations.

Members

Tracey Weissgerber

University of Coimbra

WHS Academic Alliance Member

Cherian Varghese

Manipal Academy of Higher Education

Christine Ngaruiya

Stanford School of Medicine

Bachera Aktar

Brac University Bangladesh

Laura Magaña

Global Network for Academic Public Health (GNAPH)

WHS Academic Alliance Delegate

Abla Sibai

American University of Beirut

WHS Academic Alliance Member

Yangmu Huang

Peking University

WHS Academic Alliance Member

Melissa Miles

Monash University

WHS Academic Alliance Member

Sabina Faiz Rashid

BRAC University Gulshan

The group is addressing three central questions:

How can academic institutions and the wider academic ecosystem position themselves as stewards of knowledge and academic responsibility in service of planetary and human health?
The group will explore the role that academic institutions and the academic ecosystem should play to address societal needs in the face of these challenges.
What major structural, procedural, and cultural transformations are needed in the academic ecosystem of the future?
The group will examine the changes required to meet societal needs, while addressing current and future challenges. It will also identify institutional components and strategies that have enabled resilience and successful adaptation to previous challenges.
How can academic institutions and other organizations within the academic ecosystem achieve these transformations?
The group aims to identify specific actions that organizations can take to achieve these transitions.