Universities are increasingly acting as hubs where industry, government, and research intersect. During a recent session at the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, leaders discussed how these cross-sector collaborations are reshaping higher education. The discussion, titled “Sustainable higher education systems: Building integrational partnerships for resilience and inclusive higher education,” moved beyond basic mechanics to address the ethical implications of these alliances.
Jay Siegel, vice-president and pro-vice chancellor of teaching and learning at the University of Hong Kong, framed the central questions for the panel. He asked whether partnerships truly benefit students or if they merely serve corporate interests.
“We’re talking about situations in which the university sees itself as a nexus of various sectors of society, be it industry, government, military or NGOs,” Siegel explained. He noted that sustainability now includes financial, social, and ethical dimensions, particularly with the rise of artificial intelligence.
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“Are these partnerships really beneficial, and do they really serve the mission of the university, or do they perturb the university?” asked Siegel, who is also a world-renowned chemist.
Resilience through collaboration
National Taiwan University (NTU) has established an advanced technology school funded by ten companies and the government. This initiative allows the university to tackle oceanic climate problems while supporting poor students. NTU also partnered with Kew Gardens in London to expand its academic reach.
VinUniversity in Hanoi operates with a mission of nation-building. President Lê Mai Lan noted that while Vietnamese parents spend billions sending children overseas, many do not return. The university aims to create an Indigenous institution that retains local talent.
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Naoshi Sugiyama, president of Nagoya University in Japan, kicked off the discussion by giving a capsule history of how NU went from a limited number of research collaborations with industry to a deep relationship with a company owned by Toyota that produced blue LED lights that destroy acne-causing bacteria and reduce skin oil production; the three professors involved in the project received the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Chancellor of the University of Hawai’i, Manoa (UHM), Vassilis Syrmos, also spoke from a position of institutional strength. The 14 telescopes at Mauna Kea, a US$10 billion installation managed by UHM, draw international and governmental cooperation and can observe the entirety of the northern night sky and a large portion of the southern night sky – the portion which cannot be observed by a telescope in Chile. And UHM is working with the University of Washington and University of California on “ocean sciences, ocean acidification [and] coastal sciences” with the need to improve resilience to the impacts of climate change an issue of grave concern.
“These oceans are actually boiling, and that affects how we’re going to leave this earth to our next generation,” he said, before explaining that sea level rises will “affect billions of dollars in investment in coastal communities”, and they are also going to leave some Pacific islands under water in 25-30 years – including Waikiki Beach, a 15-minute bicycle ride from Syrmos’ campus.
