University mission and identity for a post post‐public era

Abstract The paper reflects on the implications of two influential albeit contrary movements affecting research universities in Australia (and many other nations): global rankings, which normalize the comprehensive science‐based research university; and the policy emphasis on diversification. It critiques the global rankings developed by the Times Higher Education Supplement and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which tend to shift control over the definition and purpose of university activity to the rankings agencies themselves. Taken together, rankings and diversity pose for university executives and governing bodies the question of university mission and strategy. It is knowledge creation that distinguishes universities. To go to the root of mission and strategy is to revisit the academic fundamentals, focusing on the mixed public/private character of the core academic 'products' of universities and on the internal ethical regimes essential to sustain free scholarship and research. Acknowledgement This paper was first delivered as a keynote address to 6th Annual National Conference on University Governance, Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, October 10–11, 2006. Thank you to Deryck Schreuder who suggested the themes, to Sharon Parry who encouraged the author to think it might be worth publishing, and to the two anonymous reviewers. Notes 1. The focus is on research universities because it is among the research universities that questions of global rankings and institutional trajectory are posed most acutely at present. There is another discussion to be had which focuses on the consequences of rankings for different kinds of university. The diversity of the Australian system is discussed elsewhere—see Marginson & Considine (Citation2000) and Marginson (Citation2006). 2. The discussion here is centred on Australia, but the issues receive global treatment in Marginson and Van Der Wende (forthcoming). 3. This anecdote is derived from as yet unpublished research on the global perspectives and strategies of the University of Malaya that was conducted in February 2006. The story has been confirmed from several sources.