Author
Tay
Kheng Soon
19/4/01
2001
Asia International University (AIU) - draft
CONTEXT
While there is tacit Asian acknowledgement of the World Bank's diagnosis
that institutional deficit in Asia exacerbated the 1997 economic meltdown;
there is no concensus as to the complicity of "Asian Values"
in this crisis. Most will however agree that there is a value question
involved in the widening gap between the new 'values' and old ones due
to modernisation. But tackling values is a long-term process. Governments
focus on present economic problems. Politics is after all predicated on
realisable time frames, fostering long-term change has to come through
education.
But education in Asia tends to be derived from the ideas and practices of advanced countries adapted to local conditions. If education is to address value deficits in society, it has to innovate new ideas and methodologies from within the society. One area is to transform education in empower individuals and communities in a responsible and knowledgeable manner. Education has thus to be seen as synergy between community, primary and secondary schools and the universities.
The key to this is through trust. Trust gained through successful sharing and risking is the vital cultural capital, which enables a people to take initiative in a spirit of freedom needing minimum regulation and state controls. Creativity will arise naturally without need to constrain it.
The fact that contemporary social change in Asia leverages exclusively off economics. Culture, i.e., implicit social values, is being dissipated and displaced by big government as the mobiliser of change. Thus the challenge is how to lift culture from its limited role as mere identity marker. The issue has to start from the base, i.e., the families and the nuturing of individuals. Parents and teachers must encourage children to raise their sights and to take interest in the environment. Schools must go beyond being conveyor belts, struggling under an increasing learning load. Institutions of higher learning must pursue vigorous fundamental research in answering to the needs of the economy. Character development of students is left to chance. Producing needed managers and technicians for the increasingly monetarised economy has become the main focus. People are fatigued in coping with the stress of rapid changes in their lives and relationships. People retreat into a privatised world of values and perceptions mobilised by Nation Building directives. The immediate, the pragmatic and the material overwhelm real learning, imagination and sensibilities.
The challenge now is how to re-energised the people. This has to be through enlightened empowerment. The development of the whole person and his relationship with the community in the learning process best suited to liberating creativity and compassion. Action must be accompanied by reflection and critical discourse to deepen intellect and sharpen sensibilities. New minds and new leaders will then arise from within the new milieu created by the students themselves. Thus, the learning environment (schools) will have to be living microcosms of the new society envisaged. Then they will serve as beachheads for the future. Thus AIU is conceived of as a campus-city. The idea is for the university to be the heart of the new community in microcosm.
An AIU campus-city encompasses the whole gamut of human life. Parents will be able to be involved in the education of their children while they pursue their own careers nearby. Work will be energised in the excitement of the new culture of ideas. Work and learning become indivisible. Senses, not just intellect are honed. Aesthetic knowledge is gained through opening what were once ritualised senses. This implies a whole new set of relationships between individuals and the natural and man-made environments. AIU campuses are therefore not to be ivory towers but places of personality integration. Working, learning, living and playing becomes indivisible.
EDUCATIONAL
PHILOSOPHY OF AIU
The generative philosophy revolves around two sets of ideas: The 5Es and
the 5Cs. The 5Es are: Empowerment, Ethics, Economics, Environment and
aEsthetics. All the "Es" are intertwined pedagogically. Empowerment
is always with ethics. Therefore empowerment is responsible. Economics
is infused with concern for the environment. AEsthetic sensibility is
the opening up the intellect, the senses and the human spirit to direct
responses rather than through iconic substitution and symbolic emblems
as now. Thus teachers and students would be empowered through carefully
contextualised project-driven learning situations. A culture of trust
and venture arises from successful risking and sharing. Risking and sharing
are key strategies in the educational culture of AIU. Ethics is thus realised
not as abstract values but is experientially validated. This way it is
internalised. Concern for the environment is experienced as a shared value.
Aesthetics is realised as the joy found in coherent and economic simplicity.
The 5Cs are: Competence, Confidence, Courage, Conscience & Compassion and Creativity & Imagination. These grow sequentially and spiral outwards in ever widening cycles. Information acquisition in the Information Age is no longer the principal issue in education, the question is. This depends on Courage and Creativity. These, in turn, come from confidence, which in turn comes from competence. Real competence is crucial for real confidence. A false confidence is source for many human interpersonal problems. For conscience to be heeded, courage is a precondition. Thus the 5Cs constitute a key strategy to link learning to personality and thereby internalise knowledge. It is the method to bring out from the individual, innate human propensities for proper relationship with the world.
GOVERNANCE
AND FUNDING
An Academic Council of Nobel Laureates and other internationally renowned
individuals will govern the University. The Council will determine academic
policy and appoint all teaching and research staff. Wealthy Asian individuals
will be invited to establish AIU's endowment fund and be AIU's Board of
Benefactors. Together with the initial endowment fund, AIU will generate
all subsequent funds through realised values from the land. Live-in faculty
will be remunerated international rates indexed against local living costs
(to encourage domicility). Only visiting faculty will be remunerated international
rates. All qualifying students will receive scholarship loans for tuition
and living costs. They pay back upon graduation.
CAMPUS PLAN
Campus design is crucial. The campus will be compact to facilitate interaction
and communication. Thus, stretched out on both sides of a central linear
core of teaching and research facilities will be land parcels for manufacturing
plants, health facilities, primary and secondary schools, R&D centres,
housing, shops and offices, farms, arts and culture institutions, etc.
A synergistic culture is aimed at in the AIU Campus where the divisions
between business, social institutions and education are not separate.
The traditional separation between town and gown will be minimised. The
campus will thus be a lively learning place.
LOCATION
OF AIU CAMPUSES
There could be several AIU campuses hosted in different Asian locations.
What will be needed are suitable grant of land and relevant government
permits. Other criteria would include relatively low cost locations but
proximity to communication and transportation infrastructure. Presently,
India, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Philippines and Taiwan are possible
locations for AIU campuses. At the matured phase of the AIU concept, inter-regional
campus exchanges will develop to enrich learning possibilities and knowledge
exchange. AIU can be thought off as educational acupuncture on the Asian
mindscape.
STEPS
It is proposed that weekend meeting be held in Singapore of suitable persons
together with the panel of Nobel Laureates to flesh out the AIU concept
and to initiate the Council, approach for serious funding can begin. Institutionalisation
then follows. Governments can then be approached, land and permits obtained
and the first campus development can begin in accordance with the directions
of the AIU Council and the Board of s Benefactors.