Are our universities failing us?

In this special event, Distinguished Visiting Professor Asit K Biswas, from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, will argue that universities everywhere are neglecting their duty to engage in public debate on crucial policy issues. So absorbed are they in the chase for global rankings that academic excellence is being judged on the basis of publications in high impact journals, rather than on contribution to society.

Meanwhile students are left unasked how well they are prepared for their future, and vital research is left unread by policymakers. And while administrators may repeat platitudes about ‘business as usual’ approaches no longer working to solve the challenges facing academia, the truth is they do not believe in ‘business unusual’ solutions.

Professor Biswas is one of the world’s leading authorities on water and environmental management. Formerly a professor in the United Kingdom, Canada and Sweden, he was member of the World Commission on Water, and a founder of the International Water Resources Association and World Water Council. He has been senior advisor to 20 governments, six heads of United Nations Agencies, two Secretary-Generals of the OECD, and many other major organisations.

This public lecture will be hosted by the Asia and the Pacific Policy Society’s online platform for policy debate and discussion, Policy Forum, in celebration of its second birthday, and the ANU Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs’ 2016 Horizons seminar series – Digital frontiers: agency and power in an online Asia-Pacific.

For those not able to come along, the event will be livestreamed through the Society’s Facebook page.