The vision for the University of the World rests on global evidence that through educating people they can develop and evolve solutions for their well-being. Emphasis is on community-based learning as this will have radiating consequences beyond the individual for the Earth and to advance others.
Civil unrest, threatening epidemics, deteriorating nature, food insecurity, continuing inequity in wealth, incompetent governance – these huge challenges that affect us all have local solutions – solutions that are different in each local place. The University of the World, by basing its learning in local community and connecting to the world, joins an age when the globalization of higher education has opportunity to help find solutions.
In higher education, with our new globalized age, a new approach is available to educate people wherever they live, regardless of their resource base. The world is coming together in new ways and this offers potential for an expanded mode of higher education. The opportunity for education may now be able to de-couple learning from privilege.
Society has come to accept the idea that learning should occur in a place set apart from society – a school. But, if the objective is to improve our lives, why should school be away from such real-life challenges? Why spend millions to create (and maintain) separated environments or electronic simulations when available (for essentially no-cost) is the most authentic learning environment, fitted exactly to local context where the skills that will be learned will be applied?