Thank you for this thought-provoking piece as always! Your exercise of imagining a world without universities stirred something deeper in me—not just fear or disorientation, but a sense of urgency and possibility.
While I too instinctively recoiled at the idea of their disappearance, I want to gently challenge and expand the conversation: perhaps the question isn’t whether universities will vanish, but whether they can transcend their current form to truly embody the values they profess—curiosity, justice, inquiry, and care.
You beautifully describe the university as a community, a dialogue, and a space. Yet, many of us—particularly those from the Global South, precarious academic positions, or marginalized identities—often find ourselves excluded from, or exhausted by, the very structures that are meant to include and uplift. The university, for us, can be simultaneously liberating and limiting—a site of both empowerment and erasure. Perhaps the deeper fear is not that the university will cease to exist, but that it may persist in a form that forgets its public purpose.
In this light, your call for open community, beyond knowledge, and inclusive space resonates—but I wonder if we might go further. What would it mean to reimagine universities not just as adaptive institutions, but as healing ecologies—where knowledge is not only constructed, but also reconciled, decolonized, and re-spirited? Where learners are not merely shaped for societal participation, but invited into a world of meaning-making that honours different epistemologies, temporalities, and ways of being?
GenAI, for instance, doesn’t just challenge the university’s epistemic authority—it challenges us to rethink what counts as knowledge, and whose labour, language, or lineage is acknowledged. What if the university became less of a gatekeeper, and more of a gathering—where the intellectual and the emotional, the embodied and the digital, the scientific and the sacred could meet in respectful tension?
I write this not from cynicism, but from hope—hope that the university, like a terrarium as you say, can be tenderly curated to thrive in its own ecosystem, while letting go of what no longer serves. Thank you for opening this space for reflection. I look forward to continuing this vital conversation.
Thanks so much, Avita, for the lovely words, I am so glad to have your perspective here, it does open up the conversation to a new territory that I had not really explored.
This is an interesting post and a topic I've been thinking about. I agree largely with your comments and add the following two points...
1. the magic in universities comes from the combination of knowledge creation/development and knowledge sharing through education. This creates a ideas eco-system where ideas are valued (treasured!) alongside thoughtful and robust analysis, evaluation and synthesis. Either research or teaching on their own is less constructive and more limited.
2. universities and university systems have become mass educators so they must pay attention to what all their graduates are seeking. This takes them beyond a space for intellectual endeavour to include a mission to equip graduates for an uncertain future including their careers.
Australian Universities, where I am, were established with a firm emphasis on building professional careers. That doesn't replace the need for open thought and discovery but it does expand the mission.
Just to let you know Teaching Matters, tomorrow morning, will feature your article, Are universities indispensable?, as the basis for one of its discussions.
Live on YouTube tomorrow, Sunday 4 May '25 at 10am.
Dear Alexandra,
Thank you for this thought-provoking piece as always! Your exercise of imagining a world without universities stirred something deeper in me—not just fear or disorientation, but a sense of urgency and possibility.
While I too instinctively recoiled at the idea of their disappearance, I want to gently challenge and expand the conversation: perhaps the question isn’t whether universities will vanish, but whether they can transcend their current form to truly embody the values they profess—curiosity, justice, inquiry, and care.
You beautifully describe the university as a community, a dialogue, and a space. Yet, many of us—particularly those from the Global South, precarious academic positions, or marginalized identities—often find ourselves excluded from, or exhausted by, the very structures that are meant to include and uplift. The university, for us, can be simultaneously liberating and limiting—a site of both empowerment and erasure. Perhaps the deeper fear is not that the university will cease to exist, but that it may persist in a form that forgets its public purpose.
In this light, your call for open community, beyond knowledge, and inclusive space resonates—but I wonder if we might go further. What would it mean to reimagine universities not just as adaptive institutions, but as healing ecologies—where knowledge is not only constructed, but also reconciled, decolonized, and re-spirited? Where learners are not merely shaped for societal participation, but invited into a world of meaning-making that honours different epistemologies, temporalities, and ways of being?
GenAI, for instance, doesn’t just challenge the university’s epistemic authority—it challenges us to rethink what counts as knowledge, and whose labour, language, or lineage is acknowledged. What if the university became less of a gatekeeper, and more of a gathering—where the intellectual and the emotional, the embodied and the digital, the scientific and the sacred could meet in respectful tension?
I write this not from cynicism, but from hope—hope that the university, like a terrarium as you say, can be tenderly curated to thrive in its own ecosystem, while letting go of what no longer serves. Thank you for opening this space for reflection. I look forward to continuing this vital conversation.
Warm regards,
Avita
Thanks so much, Avita, for the lovely words, I am so glad to have your perspective here, it does open up the conversation to a new territory that I had not really explored.
Hello from a long-time fan,
This is an interesting post and a topic I've been thinking about. I agree largely with your comments and add the following two points...
1. the magic in universities comes from the combination of knowledge creation/development and knowledge sharing through education. This creates a ideas eco-system where ideas are valued (treasured!) alongside thoughtful and robust analysis, evaluation and synthesis. Either research or teaching on their own is less constructive and more limited.
2. universities and university systems have become mass educators so they must pay attention to what all their graduates are seeking. This takes them beyond a space for intellectual endeavour to include a mission to equip graduates for an uncertain future including their careers.
Australian Universities, where I am, were established with a firm emphasis on building professional careers. That doesn't replace the need for open thought and discovery but it does expand the mission.
Keep up the great work.
Liz Johnson, Australia
Hi Alexandra,
Just to let you know Teaching Matters, tomorrow morning, will feature your article, Are universities indispensable?, as the basis for one of its discussions.
Live on YouTube tomorrow, Sunday 4 May '25 at 10am.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UDPGu6x6xw
Paul