Souvenirs from Seoul and Kyoto

Last month, I took part in two international opinion makers’ forums, International Presidential Forum in Seoul, and Science and Technology in Society Forum in Kyoto. Both centered on the themes of sustainable development and climate change, the recession and how to overcome it, as well as the development of innovation systems.

Speakers in Seoul noted that universities in different countries are coping with the recession in different ways. In the United States, the entire funding base of the education system is experiencing difficulties: profit from the universities’ own capital has plunged in value, the states are saving in public expenditure, and income from tuition fees is falling due to students’ financial difficulties. In this situation, we can be proud that Finland is investing in education and research despite the recession in order to secure its future after this period.

The discussion in Kyoto focused on the inequality of countries and regions in terms of food production, water and energy as indicators of sustainable development. Education and technology were seen to play a key role in controlling climate change. Cooperation between the corporate world and governments was one of the solutions offered to reduce social problems and inequality. A number of speeches appealed to joint responsibility. We have only one Earth.

Education systems face a joint challenge to guarantee the high quality of research and education at all levels. Moreover, conference speeches expressed concern over students’ interest toward technical-scientific disciplines as well as over securing an adequate number of students in the professional fields of the future, which are just now taking shape. The connection between research and education was extensively highlighted. One speech even argued that the value of research lies solely in its ability to ensure high-quality teaching.

The development of innovation systems continues to present a challenge. There is no panacea in sight. The conferences discussed whose responsibility it is to convey the universities’ knowledge to the society. Do the industry and the society possess adequate know-how to invest in new knowledge? Should universities focus on holding ownership over their rights to inventions or rather promote further utilization of the inventions?

The long time span of basic research conducted in universities was also under discussion. The period between a critical discovery and the resulting innovation may be up to 100 years. This observation may best exemplify the specific role of universities as the producers of new knowledge, in particular. The utilization of knowledge, on the other hand, requires persistent cooperation between several different actors.

Here at Aalto we have begun to develop a leadership system suitable for the academia, together with a force consisting of about one hundred individuals who are managing our university at various levels. You will hear more about the Aalto Leadership program later!