In a world in which universities everywhere are being challenged to rethink their purpose, relevance, and social responsibility, a new vision is being forged in one of the developing nations of South Asia. At the Yunus Centre in Dhaka, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus recently chaired the 5th meeting of the Board of Trustees of Grameen University, another important milestone in the development of one of the most innovative new approaches to education in the world. The establishment of Grameen University represents a bold new attempt to rethink what a university can be, and must be, in a world facing problems of poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, and social dislocation.
For centuries, universities everywhere have focused primarily on the transmission of knowledge and on preparing young people for their roles in the workplace. But in a world in which problems of poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, and social dislocation require a new kind of thinking, it is no longer enough simply to ask, as was traditionally the case, “What do our students need to know?” The question being increasingly asked in academic and policy circles is, “How do we use education as a means of solving some of the most pressing problems of our time?”
Inspired by the philosophy of social business advocated by Professor Muhammad Yunus, the university seeks to develop an educational environment in which learning and social impact are integrally connected. While most institutions limit education to the classroom and the textbook, this institution aims to provide an exciting learning ecosystem in which the student, the entrepreneur, and the researcher can work with the community to develop effective solutions to the problems that beset it. In this context, Grameen University is not just an academic institution but an exciting living laboratory of ideas, where education serves as an effective tool for social transformation.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Grameen philosophy is its emphasis that the creativity and innovation of the human race should not be confined within the boundaries of economic thinking. According to Professor Muhammad Yunus, young people have tremendous potential to bring about social transformations if given the opportunity to innovate and think differently from conventional economic thinking focused primarily on profit.
In this institution, students are not going to think merely about their jobs but about their missions. The missions will address social issues such as poverty, pollution, health care, financial exclusion, and education. The university is going to develop a new generation of leaders who will think about social impact and become agents of social change. This is going to bring about a paradigm shift from job seekers to changemakers and redefine the role and purpose of higher education in the twenty-first century.
At the heart of this transformative vision is the idea of social business, which has already changed the way the world thinks about economics and development. Unlike other profit-maximising businesses, social businesses aim to solve social issues while also making profits. The profits earned by the business are directed toward its expansion. Grameen University seeks to apply this philosophy immediately. It is not just that students will learn about social business as an intellectual idea. They will actually help create social enterprises that address real social problems. This is an important step in bridging the potentially large gap between theory and practice. Education is used as an engine of social progress.
Although Grameen University is to be founded in Bangladesh, it will be a truly global institution. By bringing together people from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, it seeks to create a truly global centrecou of intellectual creativity in social business, sustainable development, and ethical leadership. It will challenge the existing pecking order in world academia by showing that groundbreaking ideas can emerge from the developing world.
Ultimately, Grameen University is important for the philosophical statement it makes. It is not just that it is an important institution in terms of what it does. It makes an important statement about the relationship between education and society’s struggles.
For too long, universities in many parts of the world have existed in relative isolation from the surrounding communities. The vision of Grameen University is to reverse this trend and place social engagement at the very heart of learning. Such an approach turns education into a force that catalyses social progress.
The deliberations at the 5th Board of Trustees meeting indicate that the dream of Grameen University is slowly but surely becoming a reality. With a roadmap now in place to become fully operational in the not-too-distant future, the institution is about to throw open its doors to students who will carry forward the ideals of innovation, compassion, and social responsibility.
In Bangladesh, this is a historic opportunity to pioneer a new form of university education that connects intellectual growth with society’s needs. In the context of the world at large, this is an even more valuable opportunity: to reconnect the idea of university with the idea of imagination and hope.
The world we live in today faces critical issues that cannot be tackled in the usual way. It needs new ideas, new institutions, and new generations of leaders who have the confidence that change is possible. This is precisely the kind of generation that Grameen University wants to foster.
And when the university at last opens its doors, perhaps a new chapter will begin in the history of global education, in which the measure of knowledge will no longer be the grades that students achieve, but the grades that they help achieve in the upliftment of the community, the restoration of dignity and hope in the face of adversity, and the creation of a better and kinder world.
The writer is a Professor, Journalism and Mass Communications at Savannah State University, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
