Dr Patricia Baron Pollak (Cornell University)
The Translation of Research-Based Knowledge to Practical Application and the Public Role of the Future University
One salient use of the knowledge generated through academic research today is the application of those results to important issues of contemporary society. This happens through the transfer of both available and new knowledge from the university to outside environments. Traditionally, knowledge generated in fields such as the basic and applied sciences, including engineering and medicine, has been put to practical use in myriad ways. Today, there is increasing appreciation for the utility and application of the knowledge generated in many fields – including those of the social sciences. The public role of the university as expressed through the practical application of research is now widely acknowledged, both within the various arena of the university itself and outside in the sciences, business, and the social, political and economic spheres.
Over the years, universities have established long-standing traditions for the dissemination of scholarship. Today the customs of academic publication and peer-review are entrenched in university policies, procedures, and the evaluation of scholarship and scholars themselves. Yet, new technology has changed global communication in fundamental and significant ways. The traditional means of communicating research-based knowledge is no longer quick enough or widespread enough to adequately and effectively respond to the needs of modern society. Changes in communications and the concomitant speed of social, political, and economic change have made the leisure-pace of traditional scholarly dissemination obsolete. There is a need to develop, implement, and institutionalize new and effective tools and techniques for the dissemination of scholarship in the future university.
This paper will address the mismatch among the increasingly public role of the university, modern communications, and the long-established traditions of scholarship. For scholars to meet the need for the rapid and widespread dissemination of research-based knowledge for practical application, the traditional paths for scholarly output will have to change. The sustainable future university will have to be one that acknowledges that the continuing evolution of communication is having and will continue to have widespread impacts upon the ability of the university to sustain its public utility role in society. In so doing, the impacts reflect upon the institution itself and upon all of the various actors in the knowledge chain. The paper’s main argument is that the future university can no longer rely upon tradition and that new ways to incorporate, encourage and evaluate scholarship are needed.
