Category: Core Theory

Categories
Commentary Core Theory Key Insights

The Paradox of Precision: How Ranking Frameworks Re-engineer Reality Through Observation

Institutional ranking frameworks, like India’s NIRF, successfully drive measurable improvements (e.g., more research, higher faculty qualifications) by defining specific metrics. However, this very act of measurement creates a new reality […]

Categories
Commentary Core Theory

The Re-Description of Higher Education: From Autopoietic Enclosure to Geopolitical Operability

A response to the University World News article: Southern African universities build more scholarly bridges The contemporary higher education system, historically observed as an entity primarily defined by its internal […]

Categories
Commentary Core Theory

The Regulator’s Paradox: How the Quest for Order Creates Systemic Disorder

A primary function of any governance structure is to observe the system it regulates and introduce distinctions that reduce complexity, thereby ensuring stable and predictable operations. When a regulatory subsystem, […]

Categories
AI Commentary Core Theory

From Sovereignty to Systemic Curation: The University’s Second-Order Imperative

The discourse surrounding universities and artificial intelligence has coalesced around a seemingly robust concept: “AI sovereignty.” As articulated in recent analyses and presented by the University World News, this involves […]

Categories
Contemporary Issues Core Theory Key Insights

Internationalization After Geopolitics: Decoupling Without Isolation

Sanctions, visa regimes, and data controls are reshaping the global university. The answer is not retreat but redundancy: diversified partnerships, shared curricula across jurisdictions, and research protocols that function even […]

Categories
Contemporary Issues Core Theory Key Insights

A New Calendar for Lifelong Learning

Semesters were built for a world of stable careers. Today’s learners need modular, stackable, and verifiable learning that unfolds across decades. I sketch the architecture of a new academic time: […]

Categories
Contemporary Issues Core Theory Key Insights

Funding Without Purpose: How Markets and States Are Pulling Universities Apart

Tuition dependence says “maximize enrollment”; public oversight says “serve the public”; research grants says “win prestige.” When all three speak at once, strategy fragments. This op-ed shows how mixed funding […]

Categories
Contemporary Issues Core Theory Key Insights

Free Speech and Safe Learning: How to Disagree Without Freezing the System

Universities wobble between declarations of absolute freedom and demands for absolute protection. Both absolutes immobilize decision-making. I propose a temporal solution: structured disagreement with clear stages, role-safe forums, and time-bound […]

Categories
Contemporary Issues Core Theory Key Insights

Administrative Proliferation: The Organization That Organizes Itself

Faced with risk and scrutiny, universities produce procedures to demonstrate control. Each new problem yields a new office; complexity grows by addition. I explain why compliance becomes a survival language […]

Categories
Contemporary Issues Core Theory Key Insights

AI as the New Adjunct: What Machines Can and Cannot Teach

Generative AI will grade, draft, and drill. It is efficient at repetition and indifferent to meaning. This essay distinguishes drill from education: machines can assist practice; they cannot bestow judgment. […]