The World Wise podcast returns with its third season and also has a new look and feel. Season Three launches with an episode with Jamil Salmi, the perfect guest to inspire us and help us kick off 2023 by staying focused on some of the biggest issues in higher education globally, including how inequalities in education continue around the world despite greater access to technology, and how universities need to transform themselves for the future or else they risk becoming obsolete—or becoming "museums" as Jamil describes it. Jamil Salmi is an economist, development and policy expert, one of the foremost public intellectuals in higher education, and is also a former head of higher education at the World Bank. He is widely regarded as one of the most astute tertiary education experts in the world, and has provided policy advice to governments and university leaders in about 100 countries in all parts of the world. He is also a prolific author and his series of books on world-class universities (co-authored with Philip Altbach) are an essential reference.
Episode highlights:
- Jamil’s global educational journey across Morocco, France, and the U.S., and how it shaped his interests and career, especially as someone from the Global South.
- The uneven and inequitable impacts of COVID-19 on higher education around the world.
- The important role of technology in higher education, and why Jamil has been predicting its rise for several years.
- What is means for institutions to aspire to be world-class, particularly for institutions in developing countries? What are the costs and benefits of such aspirations? The current status of higher education in Jamil's region of origin, the Middle East and North Africa.
- Jamil’s vision for the universities of the future and how they need to change and adapt in order to be student- and learner-centered, or else they risk becoming “museums of the 20th century.” The rise of micro- and stacked credentials.
- The critical role of scientific reasoning and evidence in higher education.
- Jamil’s key pieces of advice for the next generation of professionals in our field.
Episode Resources:
Follow Jamil: LinkedIn, Twitter
Lumina report: COVID’s Lessons for Higher Education
The Road to Academic Excellence: the Making of World-Class Research Universities
The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities
Equity in access and success in HE is no longer a luxury
The Museum of 20th Century Universities
My book: America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility
Sign up for America Calling: my take on the intersection of education, culture and migration
