The Future of the University: A Proposal for a ‘Digital Research University’
Shifting forces in the UK Higher Education sector call for a new distinctive role for a university to enhance its prestige and intellectual endeavours. This new role should help to sustain and augment the existing institutional character of the university but also provide new orientations and give an impetus to a set of new long-range commitments for the university. This post argues for the need to create a special role for a university in relation to its environment, cultural milieu and to provide for a distinctive university in relation to others in the sector. This would have institutional implications in terms of the shape or pattern of the university. This proposal advocates the development of the idea of a digital-intensive mission as a digital research university. Introduction One of the major changes for the universities was the shift to the modern research university in the 1800s. This grew out of the notion that research, as an experimental procedure conducted in a spirit of
