The Rise of the 'Multiversity'

Some scholars date the beginnings of globalisation from the first move of people out of Africa, writes Simon Marginson for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Some date it from the spread of world religions - Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Others date it from the imperial European empires, the Napoleonic wars or the expanded trade and migration in the second half of the Victorian era. But one thing is certain: in the last two decades, the internet and cheaper air travel have created such closer integration and convergence that, for the first time, a single world society is within reach - and higher education, ranging beyond the nation-state, is a central driver.
The 'multiversity' - the university with multiple constituencies and demands that Clark Kerr, the former president of the University of California identified in the 1960s - has given way to the Global Research University, or GRU. The Global Research University is the multiversity with much more mobility, more cross-national research and learning, and more global systems and rankings.
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0127, 06 June 2010