National Research Council. "Executive Summary." Preparing for the Revolution: Information Technology and the Future of the Research University. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2002. 1. Print.
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Preparing for the Revolution: Information Technology and the Future of the Research University
sense the potential changes and to aid in the understanding of where the technology may drive it.
It is therefore important that university strategies include: the development of sufficient in-house expertise among faculty and staff to track technological trends and assess various courses of action; the opportunity for experimentation; and the ability to form alliances with other academic institutions as well as with for-profit and governmental organizations.
Although the study’s discussions and workshops explored a number of policy issues—such as the changing environments for funding and intellectual-property protection—that affect how the research university can best utilize information technology, the panel concluded that to offer recommendations for specific policy changes would be premature. Digital technology is evolving so rapidly that an overly prescriptive set of conclusions and recommendations would be in danger of becoming irrelevant soon after the report’s publication.
Given that the foreseeable future will be marked by great uncertainty, the panel instead recommends that the research university and its stakeholders develop a continuing dialogue, with national and grassroots components, to help research institutions and the broader higher-education enterprise understand the advances in information technology and address their potential impacts. The dialogue should involve monitoring specific technological changes and the resulting scholarly, educational, and social shifts; identifying crucial issues, challenges, and opportunities; stimulating awareness on the campuses; and identifying action items for further study.
Briefly put, the dialogue should grapple with the many aspects of the question: How will the research university define and fulfill its missions in a twenty-first century characterized by ubiquitous and rapidly evolving digital technology?
The ultimate goal is to expand and strengthen the research university’s intellectual resources and institutional infrastructure not only to manage the anticipated transformation but to lead it. This will require a commonality of understanding among members of the university community (administrators, faculty, students), between disciplines, and between the university and its key external constituents (governing bodies, state governments, federal agencies, and foundations). Such a dialogue can
